Republocrats and the Democans...

The Evangelical Block: America’s Religious, Right?
Steven Waye

“One nation under God”. “In God We Trust.” Creeds such as these have remained woven into the fabric of American culture since its inception as a nation, serving as a reminder that, despite the constitutional commitment to an ostensible separation of church and state, a fundamental religiosity was instrumental in shaping of the values of the fledgling nation. Reciprocally, these phrases continue to reflect the enduring status of America as a very spiritual nation (91% of Americans believe in God, according to a 2007 Newsweek poll). We encounter them every day, muttered reflexively in classrooms across America, bannered across the bottom of our national currency; but the straightforward phrasing of these axioms belies their ambiguity, as well as the plurality of American religious belief. In what sort of God do we trust? We are one nation under God, perhaps, but do our spiritual convictions make us more or less indivisible? Such is the challenge of a politician attempting to appeal to the sacred heart of contemporary America.

George Bush’s narrow victories in 2000 and 2004 were attributed largely to his ability to energize and mobilize the nebulous “religious right”, a term injected into the vernacular by the news media to describe a group of people that are loosely bound by a zeal for a specific brand of evangelical Christianity, social conservatism, gun racks, and PTA meetings. Perhaps because of the dominant personalities (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham) that have risen from this camp in recent decades, this faction of American Christianity is assumed to be representative of the general American Christian populous. It is assumed that by appealing to this demographic, overwhelmingly the domain of the Republican Party in recent years, one has captured the soul of the spiritual center of a spiritual nation.

But according to a 2005 study* only 7% of Americans define themselves as “evangelicals”, meaning that, among other stringent criteria, they define themselves as having a “close personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, maintain that faith is a vital part of their everyday life, and that it is their mission to share this faith with others. The numbers simply don’t jive with the sort of sway that this block has over the minds of politicians and pundits. While the evangelicals are not the largest Christian denomination, they are almost certainly the loudest. Perhaps the perceived effect of the Bible-thumping camp on the last two elections has less to do with magnitude than with megaphones.

The two candidates have taken tellingly different tacks in their pursuit of the elusive “God vote”. As of late, McCain has taken the Bush approach, courting the evangelicals by making his no nonsense anti-abortion stance a more salient issue than it has been at any other point in his political career, becoming more vocal about his faith, and recruiting an obscure first term governor from Alaska who fits the Christian conservative mold to a cross-bow shaped T. McCain’s Christianity is of the old guard, a public faith that focuses on honor, duty, and community. At the Saddleback forum, hosted by Pastor Rick Warren, he identified America’s greatest moral failing as an essential selfishness. “Our faith,” he said, “encompasses not just America but the whole world.”

Obama speaks to a younger generation of believers, with a more nuanced, introspective, and, not surprisingly, trendier outlook on Christian faith in a postmodern world. Obama has always been more forthright than McCain in discussions about his faith, but far from actively courting the evangelical vote many of his proposed policies are in direct opposition to fundamentalist values. Statements like the one he made during the primaries about small town America, a bastion of religious conservatism, being comprised of people who “cling to guns and faith” do not make him sound like a man who is overly concerned about kissing the elephant-sized ass of the so-called religious right. Instead, Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, espouse a more secularized faith that appeals to Christian concerns for equality and social justice. Unlike Kerry in 2004, who bumblingly tried to avoid the faith issue altogether, Obama is appealing directly to a new generation of Christians who seem more concerned about the practical application of their faith than the finer points of theological doctrine.

Faith and politics have always been inseparable in this country, and above all we want a man (or woman) in the White house who reflects our most deeply held convictions in word and deed. This election will be in many ways a barometer of America’s spiritual priorities and will aid in putting a face to the God in which we, as Americans, actually trust.
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*Born again Christians" were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today" and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "born again." Being classified as "born again" is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

“Evangelicals" are a subset of born again Christians in Barna surveys. In addition to meeting the born again criteria, evangelicals also meet seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; contending that they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; stating that Satan exists; maintaining that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; asserting that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; saying that the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Further, respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical." Being classified as "evangelical" is not dependent upon any church or denominational affiliation or involvement.