Posted on 11/11/2008 2:37:01 PM PST by Alex Murphy
Nationally, 25% of white evangelicals voted for Obama. In certain key states, the numbers were higher. He saw a 14% increase in support from white evangelicals in Colorado, 8% in Indiana, 8% in North Carolina and 4% in Ohio.
Most important, he won 32% of young evangelicals (up from 16% for McCain).
Who are these Obamagelicals - and how do they compare with the larger group of evangelicals who voted for John McCain?
Beliefnet recently surveyed its readership about who they voted for and why. 1,135 people who described themselves as "evangelical or Born Again" filled out the survey. (Full survey here)
Let's start with the similarities between Obama's evangelicals and McCain's.
They're both comparably religiously active.
But there are some stark differences:
They Emphasize Completely Different Values Issues. Obama's evangelicals ranked their priorities like this:
McCain Evangelicals listed priorities in a very different order:
Obamagelicals are moderate (not liberal). McCain evangelicals are conservative (not moderate). Only 24.6% of Obamagelicals described themselves as liberals - half the amount that Obama voters on the Beliefnet survey -- 67% said they were moderate. 8.4% said they were conservative. Less surprisingly, 79% of McCain's evangelicals describe themselves as conservative, 19.% as moderate and only 1% as liberal.
They Interpret the Bible Differently. One of the most striking differences relates to their reading of Scriptures. 58.7% Obamagelicals say "the Bible is divinely inspired but not everything in it is the literal word of God," compared to 40% who said "The Bible is the literal word of God." For McCain evangelicals, the percentages were reversed: 74.7% said it was the Bible is the word of God and only 24.6% said the Bible was divinely inspired. (More here)
Many Obamagelicals are new to the Democratic side. While 71% of McCain's evangelicals said they were Republican, 54.3% of Obama evangelicals said they were Democrats. What's more, a quarter of Obama's evangelicals voted for George W. Bush last election and 10.3% didn't vote; only 61% had voted for Kerry. By contrast, 87.9% of McCain evangelicals had voted for Bush.
Obamagelicals didn't believe Obama is or was Muslim, McCain evangelicals did. 87% of Obamagelicals believe Obama "was never a Muslim and is a practicing Christian." Only 19.7% of McCain evangelicals agreed with that statement.
Sarah Palin. McCain evangelicals loved Sarah Palin. 71.4% said her faith and practices made it more inclined to vote for McCain (compared to 56.6% among McCain voters in general). Only 5.2% of Obamagelicals said her faith attracted them, and 48.5% said it outright made them less inclined to support the ticket.
Stark Differences on Abortion. Almost all McCain and Obama evangelicals believe that reducing the number of abortions is important. But they different dramatically on the right way to achieve that goal. 61% of McCain evangelicals believed that the best approach is through legal restrictions while only 8% of Obamagelicals believed that. Instead, 86.3% of Obama's supporters said the best way is "by preventing unintended pregnancy (through education and birth control), or providing financial assistance to pregnant mothers."
As a result of these different perspectives on how to reduce abortion, they also differed sharply in their expectations about the impact of the President. Among Obama's evangelicals, 50.4% believe the abortion rate is unlikely to be affected by an Obama or McCain presidency, while 27.2% believe it will likely fall more under Obama and only 4.2% that it would fall more under McCain. This seems to indicate that the argument of progressive pro-lifers - that abortion rates could go down more under Obama - has only been half persuasive. Obama evangelicals don't believe a McCain presidency would actually reduce abortion, but they're not that convinced that Obama would be much better.
McCain voters, of course, disagree. 57.6% believe abortion would be lower under McCain. (That actually struck me as quite low. Stated another way, 42.4% of evangelical or Born Again Christians who voted for McCain have no confidence that abortion would have actually declined under a McCain presidency). (More on evangelicals and abortion here).
Obamagelicals support gay civil unions, McCain evangelicals don't. Obamagelicals are far more supportive of gay marriage than McCain evangelicals, but on balance they don't support gay marriage either. Only 28.7% said they supported gay marriage. The big difference is that most McCain voters want neither marriage nor civil unions (66.4% of McCain voters wanted neither), whereas a substantial number of Obamagelicals support civil unions or domestic partnerships (53.4%).
Obamagelicals Believe McCain's Campaign Was "Unchristian". 59.7% of Obama evangelicals said "John McCain has run amore unchristian campaign than Barack Obama." Intriguingly, only 37.6% of McCain evangelicals said that about Obama. Of all of John McCain's possible "character issues" the one that bother Obamagelicals most was the "tone of his campaign," far more important than the Keating Five scandal, his cheating on his first wife or his gambling. McCain evangelicals thought Obama's biggest character problem was his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, though they were also deeply bothered by his association with Bill Ayers.
Praying About the Election. Most evangelicals surveyed did pray about the election but in subtly different ways. 75% of McCain evangelicals prayed for "God's will to be done" and 36.7% prayed for "wisdom to make the right decision in casting my vote." Only 57.9% of Obamagelicals prayed for "God's will to be done" while more of them (42%) prayed for wisdom.
The clergy role. Obama evangelicals seem more likely to attend churches where the pastors are either apolitical or politically moderate. 19% of Obamagelicals said their pastors preached against abortion or gay rights prior to the election, while 41.5% of McCain evangelicals said so.
Note, too, that in the Beliefnet sample, African Americans and Latinos sometimes self declared as born again or evangelical. Together, made up 20% of the Obamagelicals.
Nope. I’m not giving them the word, Evangelical. The evangel is the gospel or good news; it’s literal meaning in Greek. It is a word used throughout the bible.
ONLY those who themselves with their own lips proclaim the Good News...the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ...to the unchurched are Evangelicals.
Libertarian-esque economists have done a poor job of making their case for markets helping the poor. This wasn’t always so. Smith, Ricardo, Mill, etc., were more focused on the poor and ordinary. The wealthy hate the free market because it is competitive. It was the socialists and progressives who rewrote perceptions (not actual realities), and few people have made a concerted effort to educate the public about economic freedom. “Conservatives” would rather continue marginalizing themselves by demonizing those on welfare, etc.
We offer demonopolization of the education system, greater efficiency through lower taxes and regulation (which leads to lower prices), law and order, etc. We could run on a platform of FORCING absent fathers to pay child support, eliminating much social spending, helping the poor, ending illegitimacy, and getting women on our side.
Unfortunately most Christians are naive politically and economically.
Maybe not, but without repentance, they'll be judged on that vote. Voting for abortion is still a vote for murder before the Almighty.
God's commandments triumph over man's desires.
Hey, we may have turned blue this time, but with enough work and elbow grease we can turn it bright red again. We just have to minimize the effect of certain “citizens” from Santa Fe and some of the loonies in Nob Hill.
I’m down with anyone who is a conservative. And because I’m a conservative I’ll respect anyone, no matter of religion or lack thereof, gender, etc. This is because I have a strong belief in individual liberties, and thus would not impose myself on those who believes otherwise.
Just to rant, what irks me is all the so-called Christians (liberals) that pick and choose what parts of the Bible they will follow (not believe) and discard the rest. Then they have the gall to call us rubes and ignorant. That’s what aggravates me.
Hey Pastor,
Jesus said we would be martyrs, not Evangelicals. The label “Evangelical” was coined by certain FINOs to distance themselves from those they perceived as illiterate bible school educated Fundies and to curry intellectual favor with the Neo-Orthodox and liberals. It was a spiritually snobbish term of compromise.
While this is a significant newer trend to monitor, and one that could easily continue to "bloom" (like a weed)...we also need to remember that 20%-22% of self-identified homosexuals voted for Bush in 2004.
Hardly any blocks of voters are monolithic. Well, at least not til 2008 -- the year where we saw "tribal politics" where...
...95% of Utah Mormons voted for Romney in the primaries...
...and 96% of blacks voted for Obama.
What's interesting is that if 95-96% of any other voting block--particularly Evangelicals--rallied behind a single candidate...you'd get rampant and above-the-fold MSM claims of identity politics, "easy to lead," bigotry etc. But when it's another group of voters other than Evangelicals, the RINOS and MSM pied pipers are silent -- yet another double standard in a record year for them amongst the MSM!
Now I've maintained that LDS were NOT bigoted in voting for Romney primarily based upon his faith based personal qualities; and since 88% of African-Americans already tend to vote Democrat, that meant that only 1 in 12 black independents or Republicans switched over to O.
I would surmise that most of these 1 in 4 O-Evangelicals were NOT Republicans -- likely either...
(a) Independents;
(b) urban generational Democrats; or
(c) college-age first-time voters heavily influenced by their peers and campus environment...and I would say that for this group, it almost didn't matter what they registered as...if they were at a less conservative Christian college or any secular university setting in an urban area, they heavily tended for O. [I know there were some exceptions in the South]
From the article: They Emphasize Completely Different Values Issues...4. Character [vs. 2. Character for McEvangelicals].
I think a lot of younger O-Evangelicals have been raised in a dumbed-down character & virtue context...and tend to be overly trusting of people. Notice nowhere did "lying" crop up when evaluating O.
For example:
His cover-up re: relationship w/Ayers;
his cover-up attempts of his born-alive votes in the IL senate and his partial-birth abortion voting record;
his feigned innocense of knowing what Jeremiah Wright and that church stood for;
his refusal to describe what his true relationship was with Khalidi;
his two-sided fence straddling of saying he wasn't in favor of same-sex marriage but that he didn't want state constitutions or the federal government protecting marriage from judges wanting to impose it.
Sadly, I think there were a lot of conservative Christians in that lot.
My friend is a Christian at a state college (OSU) and she said that of the people she knows who go to her Calvary Chapel/Youth for Christ groups many of them voted for Dear Leader.
Ed
My reading of Scripture is that God tends to judge cultures and people groups for the sin of spiraling violence. And that it tends to include both those who have bloodguilt directly on their hands as well as those who don't.
IOW, the judgment is coming our way -- and we can't simply point fingers.
It is a bible word. Evangel means Gospel. I'm not giving it away.
Technically, an evangelical is one who speaks the gospel.
Ro 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Ga 1:9 - As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
1Co 9:16 - For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
Ro 10:15 - And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Mr 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Lu 9:6 - And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
Ac 8:25 - And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
Ac 14:21 - And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Ac 20:24 - But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Ironic, considering it is strong pro-life folks who run Abortion Alternative groups that actually, physically help women who decide against having an abortion. I don't know of any moderate or liberal groups doing that.
I doubt very seriously if Obama will do anything to help those groups, as he's not really interested in reducing the number of abortions, or he wouldn't be pushing government funding of it.
Any Christian who voted for Obama voted to crucify Jesus all over again.
I GO to an 'evangelical' church, but can state right up front that the PEOPLE in our pews have a VAST range ideas about things!
There are fresh new Christians with real rough edges and long time believers that actually KNOW something about what is in the Bible!
"My people perish for lack of knowledge" is still true today!
Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel; for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air; and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge(Hosea 4:1-6)
;^)
Why don't RICH Conservatives buy BACK the media?
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Philippians 4:11-12
11. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
12. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
45 million + fingers are pointed our way!
I’m not so sure about that. Early this year I was on the campus of Simpson University, a Christian and Missionary Alliance school.
I was surprised to see a number of Obama signs in dorm windows.
C&MA is decidedly not luke warm evangelical.
A. Most aren't informed or thoughtful about their own faith indicating a profound immaturity and questionable faith.
B. Plenty of ‘church’ kids are as pagan as their secular peers. Growing up ‘Christian’ or ‘Evangelical’ is, for many, simply an inoculation against true conversion or genuine repentance and grasp of the faith.
In either event, believers, by dint of their faith, are going to run headlong into the impasse presented by abortion and faith constrains ALL believers to oppose it. There is no other option. All other scenarios reflect something other than true faith.
In general, I tend to support a candidate if they get the abortion issue correct - this indicates a working moral compass. If they grasp the true intent of the 2A, then it can be safely assumed that the rest of the Constitution shouldn't be in too much jeopardy from their election to office. If a candidate flunks out on one or the other litmus test, I'm not interested.
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