Posted on 11/06/2008 8:30:22 PM PST by Alex Murphy
Large numbers of Catholics and religiously unaffiliated voters heavily contributed to President-elect Barack Obama's huge margin of victory over Republican Sen. John McCain, according to an analysis of exit poll surveys by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
"Obama had a greater appeal for religious people," said John Green, a senior fellow at Pew. "I don't think we would have seen that support had Hillary [Rodham Clinton] been nominated."
Catholics voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain by a nine-point margin (54 percent versus 45 percent), a turnaround from 2004 when Catholics supported President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, by a five-point margin (52 percent to 47 percent).
Their votes came despite the warnings from 89 bishops who issued a blizzard of statements in the closing weeks of the election, warning against voting for a pro-choice candidate.
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who last month termed Mr. Obama "the most committed 'abortion-rights' presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973," led the effort.
His - and other voices from church leaders - went unheeded.
"Six months ago the pundits were predicting that President-elect Obama would not do well with Catholic voters," said Steve Krueger, national director of the Boston-based group Catholic Democrats. "The fact that Senators Obama and [Joseph R.] Biden reversed a trend, since 1996, of white ethnic Catholics defecting to the Republican Party in presidential elections is of historic significance."
Mr. Obama did especially well among Hispanics, who are overwhelmingly Catholic. Two-thirds of them voted for him compared with white Catholics, who voted for Mr. McCain 52 to 47 percent over Mr. Obama.
"Latino Catholics appear to have been decisive in flipping three states from red to blue: New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada," wrote Michael Sean Winters
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
That's a good question. I think you could say there are a number of reasons, such as the recent pedophile scandal and being more concerned about being a CEO rather than a teacher and defender of the faith. There are notable exceptions, of course. I questioned the priest who gave the homily at last Sunday's Mass on why this was not mentioned, and he just shrugged. I think they are afraid to appear to "force" other people to have principles or to speak out about politics. I had expected at least a bulletin flier, but saw nothing. One guy even wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper ("I can vote for Obama because...") that got a lot of comments, but no response from the local clergy. I am hoping the next group of priests will take their positions as shepherds a bit more seriously.
I think it is going to take a serious change in culture, beginning at the top. When people see the American bishops thumbing their noses at the pope for the last 40 years, is it surprising that Catholics do the same towards their bishops? And the bishops (even liberals) complain?
Duh?
Regards
I disagree - I missed nothing. I daresay that no FReeper is exactly proud of how their particular group responded to this election, in how their group voted if not in the choice of candidates their party offered. Making claims to the contrary is pure mind-reading.
On the other hand, claiming that Protestants voted like the Catholics did, "by a slightly lesser margin" is disingenuous at best, and pure propaganda at least. Here are those exit polling numbers again. This time I've left out the "evangelicals" and and group that I don't have contrasting numbers for. The others I've grouped into pairs, to demonstrate how wrong that idea is. Note that in each category, there's at least a ten-point difference between how Protestants and Catholics voted...
65% McCain, xx% Obama - Weekly church-attending Protestants7**
55% McCain, 43% Obama - Weekly mass-attending Catholics 6,9
65% McCain, 34% Obama - White Protestants7,8
51% McCain, 49% Obama - White Catholics1,7
54% McCain, 45% Obama - Protestants6,8
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics1,4,6,8,9,10
** No source provided voting percentages for the other party.
Citations:
1 The Awesome Blue God -- How Obama Forged A New Faith Coalition
2 Exit polls: 78% of Jews voted for Obama
3 Utah's red loses some of its luster
4 Obama's Religious Appeal: Still Missing Evangelicals - which TIME renamed as Obama: Bringing (Some) Evangelicals In
5 The Evangelical Electoral Map
6 What's wrong with Catholic voters? What's wrong with Catholics?
7 Evangelical Voters Favor McCain by Wide Margins
8 Catholic voters heavily favored Obama, analysis shows
9 What Happened to the Catholic Vote?
10 Loyal to the End: Evangelicals Stay the Course
All numbers cited are the first ones reported in the press. In cases of multiple reports, some percentages cited were not exact. However, the number was within 2% of all the other sources, lending credence to the general number & placement overall.
“seems like a good amount of those catholics that switched were hispanic”
I think it’s more about them being hispanic than Catholic.
THANK YOU GEORGE W BUSH...
Mr. Jeeves, quit reading my thoughts and get out of my head!! LOL...magritte
We are discussing the primacy of life issues in Catholic teaching not what other Christian denominations teach. Which are so varied could and have filled volumes.
And frankly I think we could do with a hell of a lot more modern day crusaders considering the very real danger radical Islam poses to our civilization. I thank God every October for our victory over the Turks ate Lepanto. Which without the aid of Our Lady would have been a rout.
And no one is picking and choosing verses from the OT and NT. And I suppose I must remind you that Catholic teaching does not rest on Sola Scriptura. I think the encyclical Dei Verbum would be of help in that area. You also would do well to read the fathers and such early Christian writings as the Didache. These would give you a heads up on the constant teaching of the Church regarding the grave sin of abortion.
And I do not think your remarks are insulting. But I do find them ignorant of Catholic teaching. I believe fully it is not willful ignorance but evidence of the extremely poor religious education you most likely received. If you want to correct that ignorance I would be glad to supply you with some wonderful apologetics.
Rather than risking further offense, I defer to your knowledge on the subject and will refrain from interjecting my own thoughts on Christianity and especially Catholicism.
Sorry, I know I sounded snarky. But my disgust with ill informed so called Catholic voters who helped but Obama in the White House has caused some overflow. I think the real problem politically is that we did not have a conservative Republican candidate running. So it made it much easier for those who usually vote Republican to switch party lines.
It also did not help that McCain brought a knife to a gun fight. Which any sage will tell you never goes well for the knife holder.
I understand what you’re saying and concur. I knew all along that McCain was not the person to have as our candidate - it’s unfortunate that was proved correct.
Uh, many of the “illegals” are now Pentecostal, and I bet they don’t contribute significantly to collections. Thank you for spouting just another typical anti-Catholic myth.
With all due respect to you, Religion Moderator, your actions will speak louder than your words with the regulars on the Religion forum. If Alex continues to "pick at the scab," will there be appropriate action?
Kind of like watching the stewards arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic as it sank.
Can you name one bishop/cardinal that who wants the immigration laws enforced?
I’m not going to let you change the subject. Can you conclusively prove that the Church is weak on illegal immigration because it wants collections?
Whose future actions are you questioning here?
Whatever. You leave your motives open and quite obvious. I guess if you keep telling yourself that, you might begin to believe it... Posting the same story twice??? Your track record of posts clearly shows WHY you posted what you do/did. The intent is to sew discord in the Body of Christ (which is what most of your threads are intended to do) by waving it in the Catholic's face that many voted for Obama. You missed my message because your very own numbers show very little difference between Catholic and Protestant voters.
Note that in each category, there's at least a ten-point difference between how Protestants and Catholics voted...
Big deal. So if I have 1000 Catholics and 540 voted for Obama, and I have 1000 Protesants and 450 voted for Obama, you call that a huge difference? So 450 of 1000 Protestants who support a candidate who thinks murdering children is OK is a good ratio for you? Are you happy with 4.5 of 10 Protestants think a candidate who supports murdering unborn children is OK? Like Christ said, look to the beam in your own eye. I wouldn't exactly be bragging about those numbers...
I highly doubt very many Catholics OR Protestants here on FR voted for Obama, anyways, so it makes your motives that much more clear. Look to your congregation, friend.
Regards
Without Catholic Hispanics, most of whom side with their la conquista brethern, the Catholic church would be far weaker/emptier in many regions.
You can pretend they’re pure.
Even if their position had no political component, they are fomenting disrespect for our laws.
If we are no longer a nation of laws, then this nation is going to have some very angry people.
I seem to remember Rudy Giuliani going after these kind of voters, the ones who were basically clueless hero worshippers.
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