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October 30, 2006

Losing The Evangelicals

The GOP has spent years bringing evangelical Christians into their camp. But they are beginning to lose their grip on them after years of riling them up for elections with promises that they can't keep.

Of the many disturbing trends for Republicans this campaign season, one of the most troubling is the drop in support among white evangelicals.

The number of conservative Christians with a favorable view of the party has plummeted from 74 percent to 54 percent between 2004 and this year, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Evangelicals comprise more than one-third of GOP voters.

The question is, where do they have to turn? The GOP is under the assumption that they have nowhere else to go, so they can keep going with the issues of division to keep them in the tent and voting, but that's not necessarily the case.

The complaints are familiar. Through every Republican victory since the Moral Majority was formed in 1979, abortion remained legal, gay couples won greater acceptance and prayer was still barred from public schools.

In 1999, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, both veterans of the Moral Majority, examined these failures in their book "Blinded by Might," and concluded that politics was too corrupt to be used to spread Christian morality in America. A few other evangelicals suggested conservative Christians withdraw from politics and focus instead on faith.

The retreat never happened. Between 1999 and 2004, the share of white evangelicals identifying themselves as Republican grew from 39 percent to 49 percent, the Pew Center found.

It's unclear whether this campaign season will be different.

I do think its important that evangelical Christians retain their voice at the voting booth. However, I think it would be better for them as a whole if they didn't do it as a block, listening to their leaders.

Instead, I posit this - talk to your candidates about your spirituality and faith regardless of party. You may not get everything you want from them, but none of us do. But you may be surprised that there are people of faith and strong character on the other side of the aisle.

Posted by Alan at October 30, 2006 04:34 AM