Included in that 28 percent are apostate and extrememly liberal churches who are not Christian at all.
If you sifted them out, Obama's support among actual believers in Jesus Christ is in the single digits.
Posted on 11/01/2008 11:53:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Barack Obama has courted white weekly churchgoers as avidly as any Republican-leaning bloc of voters, though it now appears his efforts may fall flat on Election Day.
The Gallup Poll now shows Obama backed by 28 percent of white voters who attend church at least once a week — a group that makes up a roughly a third of all voters — which would be no improvement from the 29 percent of these voters who, according to exit polls, backed Democrats John Kerry and Al Gore in the previous two presidential election.
“There has been remarkably little change among whites in the religion gap,” said John Green, of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and a top specialist on the convergence of religion and politics.
No Democratic nominee in the modern day has made more of an effort to court religious voters than Obama. Jimmy Carter, a Southern evangelical, was the last Democrat to narrowly contest weekly church-going voters in a two-man race. But where Carter attempted to deemphasize his faith in the 1976 campaign, Obama has repeatedly returned to his faith to narrow the so-called God gap that has dogged Democrats for decades.
The party's primary saw repeated and unprecedented events emphasizing faith, such as the Compassion Forum a little more than a week before the Pennsylvania vote. In the general election, in no less unprecedented form, the first event attended by the two candidates was not a presidential debate but a forum on religion and cultural politics at an evangelical megachurch.
It was at that mid-August event at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., that Obama said it was “above my pay grade” to define when a fetus gains human rights, while McCain quickly replied, “At the moment of conception.”
For social conservative leader Richard Land, Obama’s response encapsulated why Democrats have failed to make inroads with highly religious white voters.
“It’s abortion,” Land replied when the Gallup data was read to him.
“I think pro-choice people in this culture have absolutely no idea of the depth and intensity of the moral outrage of the people who are pro-life,” Land said. “They think that conservatives use it only as a wedge issue.”
“There is no other way to explain it than Obama’s position on the issues, particularly the issue of life,” said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council.
Perkins and Land both said that the religious fissure is also deeper than any one issue, even abortion, and rooted in philosophical outlooks that still define the public’s view of both parties.
“One party is traditional and another party is pretty post-modernist,” Land said.
Democrats have made some gains in improving the public’s perception of their openness to religious Americans. Some 38 percent of Americans believe the Democratic Party is “generally friendly toward religion,” up from a low point of 26 percent in 2006, according to the annual August Pew Religion and Public Life Survey but still well below the 52 percent of Americans who view Republicans as "friendly."
Current polling indicates Obama has gained with voters who attend church occasionally and could possibly win the Catholics next week. Kerry, who would have been the second Catholic president, lost Catholics to Methodist George W. Bush by about a million votes, according to exit polls.
Democrats have lost weekly churchgoers of all races by double-digits in every two-man presidential election since 1980, and by increasingly wide margins. Michael Dukakis lost these voters by about 10 percentage points in 1988, while Kerry lagged by more than 20 points in 2004.
After Bush's successful reelection bid, in which the Republican won eight in 10 of those who voted on “moral values,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada said the party had been awakened by its extensive losses with religious voters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the Democratic Faith Working Group the following year, and Obama was among the Democrats who reached out to religious voters.
But Gallup’s finding, based on more than 21,000 voter interviews in October, suggests that weekly churchgoers remain an elusive target for Democrats.
“It is surprising that there is not movement there,” said Mara Vanderslice, the Kerry campaign’s director of religious outreach who now is a Democratic consultant.
“I think a lot of the work Democrats overtook in these years was targeted at the moderate demographics,” Vanderslice added.
Analysts have found that religion most clearly affects one’s vote only among the most religious, and that religiosity trumps religion in terms of voter preferences, so that weekly church-going Catholics and Protestants tend to have similar voting tendencies.
White weekly churchgoers preferred Bush in 2004 by more than 40 percentage points, 71 percent to 29 percent. Recent Gallup data shows McCain slightly weaker among this group, with 65 percent backing him. The dip is part of a trend in which Republican support among whites this year is down across the board.
But as Green and other experts on the cross-section of faith and politics note, it is voters who attend services most regularly that are most clearly tying their vote to faith and culture.
The Obama campaign declined to comment for this story.
For McCain's part, his support among highly religious white voters has not significantly changed since mid-August, prior to his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
“There are three ways Democrats could approach these voters,” said Green. “Show respect, and certainly Obama has done that. The second thing is to change policy, and certainly Obama has not done that. The other way is mobilization. And there is some evidence they tried to reach out to these groups.”
But Green added, “What we could be seeing is that comfort and campaigning only go so far, and that ultimately it's substance that matters to these voters.”
His support for a procedure which involves sticking scissors into the back of a baby’s neck and sucking out its brain might have something to do with it. Just a guess.
I would assure Mr. land that it is actually more intense than he realizes, also in the "black" Christian community.
Not to mention his own church damning America and whitey is rather unchristian like.
28% among Christians is still to high, as is his number among firearms owners at 29%.
The Rew Wright ad could knock some points off of the number, Wright was being provocative, his language meant to incite..let’s see well he did his job..
No gain? But no loss either!
It’s stuning OSAMABAMA should be lower than the previous democrat candidates as an extremist with very doubdtfull relations...
Or is that wishfull thinking polls again?
It depends on what your definition of Christian is; I believe that said gun owners are not hunters or protective persons.
Ehh..perhaps, IMO one of the things that John McCain did not do well was spread the message of his leadership/participation in the Christmas Protest as a POW.
As for firearms, also IMO Sarah Palin’s NRA lifetime membership has not really been used very well either.
48 hours and we are reduced to 527 ads featuring Jeremiah Wright and his antics...sheesh...
Add in Obamao’s version of the Faith Based initiative requires recognition of Gay Marriages...
Kerry got 36% of gun owners. If Obama is struggling to top 30% with then that’s a good sign. Another 2 days of the NRA getting out there could lower it a few pts more. And gunowners are a big bloc in VA, PA, OH, MO and other key states. If McCain equals Bush’s #s among gun owners, evangelicals and pro lifers, he should be ok. But it just may that this year there are too many dems out there to counter. The difference bewteen a 37-37 split and a 39-33 D split is about 6 pts in the popular vote, a big mountain to climb.
Obama - Building a Religion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yvvCv79QY
how can this be? after all, he attended the same racist hateful church for the last 20 years!
“There is no other way to explain it than Obama’s position on the issues, particularly the issue of life,” said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council.
here’s how I EXPLAIN it:
1. He supports a procedure which involves sticking scissors into the back of a baby’s neck and sucking out its brain
2. he’s a pathological liar
3. he suffers from the psychological disorder pathological narcissism
4. He’s a Leninist-Marxist communist who admires Che, Castro, & Chavez
5. He hates Israel (and undoubtedly hates Jewish people)
6. he abhores true Christians (mocks Jesus & the Bible)
7. he thinks he is the Messiah, “The One” (due to reason#3)
8. he suffers from delusions of grandeur (due to reason#3)
9. he’s never wrong; never makes a mistake (due to reason#3)
10. he wants to build his own pet domestic security force (based on the Brownshirt/Gestapo/KGB model)
11. he enlists law enforcement to silence free speech in Missouri and other places which is unconstitutional and he has no jurisdiction to request such as he does not hold national elective office (so far he’s only Illinois’ mistake); he discontinues discourse with newspapers who don’t endorse him
12. he is supremely arogant (due to reason#3)
13. he is condescending (due to reason#3)
14. he’s extremely controlling (due to reason#3)
15. he hates “whitey”; he’s a biracial racist
16. he’s a militant black nationalist who admires Louis Farrakhan, Malcolm X, Rev. meeks, and Rev. Wright
17. he wants to “relieve” Americans of their guns like Mayor Daley has ALREADY done for handguns by city ordinance in the city of Chicago
18. he’s a close friend of terrorists Ayers & Dohrn
19. he’s a close friend to Israel-haters like Said & PLO spokeman Rashid Khalidi
20. he’s an elitist who talks down to “the people”
I could continue this list fairly easily ALL NIGHT......
Obviously the DNC is still as clueless as ever. We couldn’t care less about how much a candidate takes about faith, Religion and Jesus. Until they’re willing to abandon their disgusting support for infanticide they may as well not bother.
That woman is about to the get the suprise of her life when God starts to judge her for her sins after she votes for Barack Aborta on Tuesday. Read Psalms 50 & 75.
I agree with the abortion issue BUT there are also stupid Christians and Jews. Regarding the former, my parish church are anti-Iraq War, pro-gay...yes, the appeasement, lefty Christian sect. Abortion is a big issue but just an issue to a number of voters..unfortunately.
That's FAR too many 'Christians" voting for Satan. I dare say they can't be Christians at all because Obama violates so much of God's will. Even God's teaching on taxation. Robbing those who work harder for greater abundance only to have it stolen from them to "spread the wealth" to those unwilling to work harder for greater abundance is NOT in any way, shape or form Gods will.
God commands that those who do the will of God, work harder recieve the blessing, and achieve greater abundance, which in turn has a trickle down effect which benefits the community.
God only asks that those who achieve greater abundance help the sick and poor, the old and helpless through his own charity, not have it stolen from him by those who first take a large share for themselves, then "spread the wealth" among those unwilling to do Gods will and work harder for themselves.
Included in that 28 percent are apostate and extrememly liberal churches who are not Christian at all.
If you sifted them out, Obama's support among actual believers in Jesus Christ is in the single digits.
“There are three ways Democrats could approach these voters,” said Green. “Show respect, and certainly Obama has done that. The second thing is to change policy, and certainly Obama has not done that. The other way is mobilization. And there is some evidence they tried to reach out to these groups.”
If we analyze these responses one by one, this is what I conclude:
1. “Show respect, and certainly Obama has done that.
"Respect?" We know Obama and the Democrats hold Christ and Christians in contempt. His off the cuff recorded remarks to San Francisco donors mocking Christians as "clinging" to their God is proof positive of this. Further, "showing respect" is a euphemism for "lying" to the voters.
2. The second thing is to change policy, and certainly Obama has not done that.
Yes - it is called "Repentance for Sin" - and Obama and the Democrats certainly have not done that.
Psalm 51 is what the Democrats and Obama should be reciting and praying. They are not.
3. "The other way is mobilization. And there is some evidence they tried to reach out to these groups.”
This is the same drivel as #2. The Democrats have tried to repeatedly lie to Christians and Conservative Jews. Their weapon is deception. Their is no "reaching out." If Obama and his thugs get into power, expect real people of faith to be incredibly persecuted.
The homosexual groups will infiltrate the Justice Dept, and Congress will pass "discrimination" laws. Any church that does not kowtow to Obama, but speaks the Truth in Love, will be persecuted.
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