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June 27, 2008

Morality Turning the Religious Toward the Left

Macleans has a tantalizing article today about the indications that America's Christians are increasingly turning away from the "Religious Right" (GOP) and toward the more moral left. No need for me to analyze it here, but this excerpt leapt off the page for me because addresses two key points that are largely why I have wondered in awe at the continued support of Christians for the Bush Administration:

"Evangelicals are waking up to the idea that abortion is not the only moral issue. I've heard a lot of evangelicals say that whether we've had a Bush or a Clinton in the office, we've had not much change on the issue of abortion, but we've had an immoral approach to war — and I'm ready for that to stop," says Stephen Mansfield, a conservative evangelical writer who authored the bestselling spiritual biography of the current President, The Faith of George W. Bush. "The average evangelical does not see the Bush administration carrying out a Christian policy on the issue of torture. The idea you would torture a body made in the image of God is abhorrent."

The article also gives credit to Obama's willingness to speak frankly about his religious views in comparison with McCain's awkwardness in the subject. It is well worth the read and full of juicy tidbits. Like this one:

... Douglas Kmiec, a former assistant attorney general under the Reagan administration who crafted Reagan's anti-abortion policies. Kmiec is a well-known pro-life conservative Roman Catholic who endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney during the Republican primary contest, but now backs Obama.

The shift is not tremendously large, but may be large enough to swing a few percentage points of the Christian voter Obama's way.

Posted by Becky at June 27, 2008 01:36 PM