June 03, 2004

The Religion Gap

It's no surprise that most regular, church-going Christians tend to vote Republican. What is interesting is that the "religious gap" has become wider than ever.

Forget the gender gap. The "religion gap" is bigger, more powerful and growing. The divide isn't between Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles. Instead, on one side are those of many faiths who go to services, well, religiously: Catholics who attend Mass without fail, evangelical Christians and mainline Protestants who show up for church rain or shine, some Orthodox Jews. On the other side are those who attend religious services only occasionally or never.

It's a pretty interesting article. I guess that I now have data when I say that liberals are heathens. Ok, just a joke. In fact, a coworker friend attends church on a regular basis, and it doesn't stop him from being "liberal as hell" (yes...the pun was intended).

The following point in the article really sums it all up:

"Once social issues came to the forefront - abortion, gay rights, women's rights - it generated differences based on religious attendance," says John Green, a University of Akron political scientist who studies religion and politics. "More observant people tend to have more traditional morality, and they moved in a more conservative direction because of those issues."

Anyway...read the entire article.

Comments:

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Those of us christians who aren't "traditional conservatives" resent that those who are that arrogantly claim to be the only ones entitled to use the label at all. And when did "christian" come to mean "republican," anyway? If no one remembers, I'll remind you: It was in the late 1970s when Jerry Falwell formed the oxymoronic Moral Majority and began telling his minions whom to hate in the name of the Prince of Peace. Since then, many have joined the bandwagon of creating new and worse enemies they promise to "stop" if their followers cough up enough money...money Pat Robertson bizarrely spent on a huge mansion, race horses, mineral mines in Africa, and "non-partisan" voter guides which have violated laws for a dozen years. My all-time favorite, however, is Jerry Falwell's videotapes that "proved" that Bill Clinton murdered Vince Foster. Anybody wonder why he was never arrested for that?
W and JP MORGAN AGREE: "What has the law to do with me?"
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=CAMPAIGN-CHURCH-06-02-04&cat=AN

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 3, 2004 06:08 PM

w's MOVE FOR FEUDAL EUROPEAN THEOCRACY IS THE LAST THING OUR FOUNDING FATHERS HAD IN MIND
http://www.politicalstrategy.org/
And shouldn't they get their hogwash straight? Or at least their phraseology?
w's MINISTRY OF TRUTH STRIKES AGAIN!
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash4.htm

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 3, 2004 06:25 PM

w: THE MAN GOD PUT IN OFFICE
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=754
With an endorsement like that, why even bother with those pesky elections?

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 3, 2004 08:06 PM

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR w
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3114.html
THE TRUTH ABOUT w WITHOUT RESERVATION
http://www.bushrevealed.com/
CAN THERE BE A GREATER BLASPHEMY THAN COMMITTING SIN AND USING THE HOLY NAMES OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR TO JUSTIFY IT?
http://christiansagainstbush.bravehost.com/

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 3, 2004 08:18 PM

I saw this article in the USA Today. With all your articles you've posted TL, the numbers still say what they say. I was actually kind of surprised at the dramatic gap. I work at a company run by a Godly man, and most of the employees here are Christians. I found it interesting that those who attend the Church of Christ right down the road seem to all be Democrats. It's just an interesting look at religion and politics.

Posted by: Jakester at June 4, 2004 07:44 AM

The graph they showed in the paper shows the numbers I was referring to.

Posted by: Jakester at June 4, 2004 07:46 AM

I'm truly flabbergasted that members of a Church of Christ publicly admit to being Democrats. They're traditionally the most conservative protestant congregation. You know, "We're the only ones going to heaven," "Women should keep silent in the church," and all that. Maybe they got the same message I got. God told me last night He's changed His mind about having w in the White House. Apparently w fooled Him, too, four years ago...if not well before.

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 4, 2004 12:56 PM

Thanks for the interesting link

A few points come to mind - in the article Gary Bauer states that Christians now want their leaders' decisions to be informed by religious authority. However, this seems to only be the case in terms of some social issues - these include abortion, gay rights etc... At other times, conservatives have openly defied the views of religious authority - consider for example President Bush's adversarial relationship with the Pope regarding the invasion of Iraq. The Pope was openly against the invasion – and conservative American Catholics stood with the president against Rome In this case conservative American Catholics were Republicans first and Catholics second.

The Vatican has been very critical of the current US occupation of Iraq on several occasions, but American Catholics have largely ignored or dismissed the Church on these issues.

Consider also that President Bush has stood in opposition to his own United Methodist Church on several occasions regarding foreign policy.

So it appears that church going folks want their leaders to consider their religious views with regard to social issues but not matters related to war and foreign policy.

Comments?

Posted by: a. at June 4, 2004 01:05 PM

It would seem there are moral/ethical differences within every denomination. The argument that abortion is wrong PERIOD VS. abortion is wrong EXCEPT in cases of rape or incest is one for example.

Posted by: Jakester at June 4, 2004 01:52 PM

This article is a good case for keeping church and state separate. As a mainstream, tolerant, liberal Christian ("liberal Christian" is not an oxymoron), I have been asked by a conservative Christian friend how I can "call myself a Christian and vote Democratic." How narrow and polarized can we become? I reminded her that it's all right for George W. Bush to be a Methodist (church slogan: Open doors, open hearts, open minds) , but NOT all right for Hillary and me. Clinton and Gore and Jimmy Carter are Southern Baptists, but that's NOT all right. Billy Graham was asked by the Baptists NOT to pray at Clinton's inauguration (he prayed, anyway).

The list goes on. Abortion is NOT the only "moral" issue -- "Monica" not the only sin. Gay marriage is not the only "threat" to "the family." Unemployment is bad for "the family." So are polluted air, no national health care, and war. Seeing "party lines" yet?

My congratulations to the Church of Christ members who refuse to be used by any party. Narrow as their beliefs may appear, maybe they can tell the difference between politics and religion!

Posted by: Lilith Robinson at June 4, 2004 03:08 PM

Lilith, you are my soul mate. I just wrote you into my will:)

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 4, 2004 04:16 PM

The "Religious Right" is routinely used as an epithet by the left. I believe both concepts are equally repugnant to most (not all) liberals...

Posted by: bikeguy at June 5, 2004 07:25 AM

That's because neither word is accurate on its own. And taken as a phrase, it's like Yugo calling itself a Ferrari.

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 5, 2004 05:07 PM

How can anybody, Democrat or Republician say they are Christian when they support and count on the vote of homosexuals, murder babies, hate anyone who doesn't support their point of view? And yet, these same people claim to be Christian? How can they be when they will kill a baby before it's born by crushing it's head and sucking it's brain out, then use that brain material for stem cell research?
Even the Devil wouldn't do that, but "they" do and say, "I am a Christian."

Posted by: Dave at June 7, 2004 10:40 AM

I can't figure that one out either. I guess you can call yourself anything you want if it makes you feel good about yourself.

Posted by: Jakester at June 7, 2004 12:23 PM

POPE TO w: "THAT MEANS MURDER, BABY!"
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/06/con04253.html

AYATOLLAH w CHANNELS NIXON, MUTTERS VAST, RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY PARANOID HATE MANTRAS, QUOTES BIBLE, CURSES LOUDLY
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
West Wing staffers call him and Ashcroft "The Blues Brothers" for being on a mission from God.

WOULD JESUS ENDORSE THESE PEOPLE? EVERY WORD OF THE GOP PLATFORM FROM 2000 WAS A PREMEDITATED LIE
http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/06/far04018.html

TRUE HISTORY FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T BRAINWASHED
OR CLOSE-MINDED...
http://www.stormfront.org/archive/t-125264
...and are white christians.

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 7, 2004 05:44 PM

POPE FEARS w IS THE ANTICHRIST. I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP.
http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_9_27/ai_108881880

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 7, 2004 09:57 PM

O.K. Good to know. If the Pope thinks it....

Posted by: Jakester at June 8, 2004 07:59 AM