God is not a Republican – and the Democrats have finally figured it out

(Excerpt from “Faith Race ’08,” The Clause, Sept. 28, 2007)

“I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, but I also believe that when a gang-banger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels somebody disrespected him, we’ve got a moral problem. There’s a hole in that young man’s heart—a hole that the government alone cannot fix.” Barack Obama said at the Sojourners Call to Renewal Gathering in 2006.

As he continued his discussion on the importance of faith, including his own, within politics, most would be shocked to find that Obama was not running for president of the traditionally conservative religious Republican Party. As a leading Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential election, Obama’s words signified the start of a campaign season saturated in religious talk, leaving the religious right of America praying for direction.

Traditionally, conservative Christian Americans predominantly align with the Republican party, where faith and morality is openly used to support ideals and agendas. Conservative leaders jump at every opportunity to exploit this dividing difference from the “secular” Democratic Party by reminding evangelical Americans that Democrats reject any notion of faith based morality. That is, until now.

The 2008 presidential election season has earned the title ‘Faith Race ’08.’ Not only has America recognized, with the election of President Bush, that religious belief and personal values play a large roll in voter support for a candidate, but the Democrats have finally caught on too. The leading Democratic candidates for this presidential election are not only open about their faith, but active in allowing it to influence their political ideas, regardless of the traditional stance of their party.

Simultaneously, the Republican presidential candidates, have not made issues of Christian faith and values a priority in their campaigns leaving traditionally Republican religious voters with what appears to many as unconventional Republican options; Mitt Romney, “a politically elastic Mormon,” Rudy Guliani, “the twice-divorced, pro-choice, gay-friendly former New York City mayor,” and John McCain, “a maverick who called conservative religious leaders ‘agents of intolerance’ the last time he ran,” according to Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs in a Time Magazine article “Leveling the praying field.”

Traditionally, it is the Democrats who have stayed far away from any discussion of religion, values or morality within the political culture, while taking a strong liberal stance on moral questions. While this behavior appeals to secular America, recent [hype for the issues of] abortion, gay marriage, school prayer and stem-cell research proves it typically repels the 55 million Americans who consider themselves pro-life, bible reading, evangelical Christians.

But a sudden acceptance and abundance of religious talk from the mouths of the Democrats has left many, especially the religious right, with valid skepticism of whether religious jargon is straight from the donkey’s ass, or if the Democrats are genuinely taking a step away from their traditional party ties and revealing their true beliefs. A question that should be valid for all candidates.

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The trends are turning, and the traditionally defined Red and Blue is becoming a shade of muddy purple.

For too long have Evangelical Americans been pressured to see the political world only in shades of red, and those who resist, told they have compromised their faith. For too long have all American voters been forced to chose between a religious right or secular left, rather than individual candidates and their personal beliefs; the beliefs that will direct their decisions and coarse of action. But as this election season approaches, the once starkly dividing issues of faith and morality are less definable by left and right, red or blue. We are progressively moving toward a purple politics without so many labels which determined stances or divisions. A purple politics where candidates are finally standing up for what they believe, not merely their parties stance, and forcing voters to really consider outside their typical ballot box.


To read the complete version of “Faith Race ’08,” visit www.clause.apu.edu