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Michael Sheridan
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By
Adam Walad Abah, IOL Correspondent
WASHINGTON,
November 5 (IsamOnline.net) – Conservative Christian groups have
rocked the vote in the US election in favor of President George W
Bush, according to US experts and analysts, citing revealing voter
classification of the electoral figures.
Evangelical
Christians and Catholics, who have already become a closely watched
swing vote, favored Bush over Democrat John Kerry by 52 percent to 47
percent, according to national exit polls.
That
is a shift from the 2000 showing of Bush, when he got 47 percent to
Democrat Al Gore's 50 percent of the same votes, especially the
Catholics.
Bush
was propelled by the strong support of evangelical Christians and a
notable showing among regular churchgoing Catholics and mainline
Protestants, analysts said.
“Yes,
they were a huge part of President Bush's victory, not so much
nationally but in the particular states where he needed to win,”
said Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com, an Internet
site that reports on religious issues.
“Making
values and ethics central to a political campaign was the main factor
for this strong support,” said Tom Barry, policy director at the
Inter-hemispheric Resource Center (IRC), a New Mexico-based group
dedicated to advancing citizen-based agenda.
Immediately
after the results became apparent Wednesday, November 3, many leaders
of Christian groups were quick to claim credit for the Bush victory
and pledged to press ahead with their agenda of issues ranging from
the so-called “war on terrorism” to anti-abortion legislation and
a ban on same-sex marriages.
‘Moral
Issues’
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Bush won majority of Catholic votes from Catholic Kerry |
“It
is clear that one of the major factors in this presidential race was
the strong turnout of the faith and pro-life communities,” said
Reverend Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition,
a group that works to end abortion and lobbies for more open display
of religious affiliations and symbols in public life.
“Moral
issues played a major role across the country,” he added in a
statement.
Mahoney
said Christian groups will use their demonstrated clout to further
influence policies developed in the White House, focusing particularly
on an abortion ban.
“We
will now bring this new found political influence to bear on the White
House,” he said.
“Our
first effort will focus on the nomination of a pro-life Supreme Court
Justice.”
“The
defense of innocent unborn human life, the protection of marriage, and
the nomination and confirmation of federal judges who will interpret
the constitution, not make law from the bench, must be first
priorities, come January,” added James Kennedy, president of Coral
Ridge Ministries.
“It
may be that America may yet return to a recognition of the importance
of religion and morality in public life.”
Some
42 percent of total votes cast Tuesday were from people who attend
church at least once a week. Nearly 22 percent of the electorate was
comprised of “white evangelicals” or “born again” Christians,
according to exit polls.
Nationally,
Kerry won 47 percent of the Catholic vote to Bush's 52 percent,
according to those polls, but in the battleground state of Florida,
Bush beat his challenger with 55 percent of Catholic support. In Ohio,
the state that determined the election, Bush beat Kerry 53-46 percent.
Catholics
make up about 27 percent of the US population while Protestants
account for 54 percent.
It
is worth noting here that Kerry is the first Catholic presidential
candidate since the 1960s. Bush is Evangelical.
Bush
also benefited from an increase in popularity among Protestants, and
Jews compared to 2000, exit polls found.
He
won 59 percent of the Protestant vote (up three percent over 2000) and
25 percent of the Jewish vote (a six-percent jump).
More
Support
The
Ohio state is drafting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex
marriage and civil unions. The proposal was endorsed, by a substantial
margin, by the state's voters Tuesday.
“President
Bush's victory in Ohio is a major accomplishment for the Bush-Cheney
ticket,” said Father John Putka, a lecturer in political science at
the University of Dayton in Ohio, one of the country's largest
Catholic universities.
“This
placed an emphasis on traditional moral values and helped to produce a
substantial surge in new voters from the evangelical and 'born again'
Christian parts of the electorate,” said Putka in a statement.
After
voters in 10 other states backed proposals to ban same-sex marriages,
Christian groups predicted Wednesday the issue could become a defining
one in US politics, possibly second only to abortion.
“Bush's
strength among conservative Christians put huge swaths of the country
simply out of reach for Kerry,” wrote Waldman and John Green on
Beliefnet.com.
Cardinal
Justin Rigali of Philadelphia had implored the archdiocese's 1.5
million Catholics that they had a “duty” to vote for antiabortion
candidates. His influence was not clear because exit polls did not
break down the Catholic vote by county.
Aggressive
Postures
Analysts
warned that a stronger conservative Christian agenda will mean more
aggressive postures by Bush, both at home and abroad.
“The
Bush victory … will allow the radical policy agenda of the Christian
conservatives and the neo-conservatives, both in foreign and domestic
policy, to continue moving forward at a frightening pace,” said
Barry.
“I
think that given this clear mandate and support for a foreign agenda
that, home and aboard, is so radical and so explicitly re-orders a
liberal system at home and a multilateral system abroad, it (the
administration) will purse those policies with more confidence,” he
added.
Observers
said that would undermine opposition to the US-led occupation of Iraq
despite finding no weapons of mass destruction – the main
justification for invading the oil-rich country.
They
warned that the decisive win could embolden the president to order
strikes against other countries on his administration's "hit
list" and offer further support to Israel.
Long-term
Tactics
A
major US daily elaborated on the issue of religion and the significant
role it played in reinstating Bush to the White House for four more
years, focusing on the planning of Bush to win “religious votes”
long before the Tuesday, November 2, race.
“If
a White House photographer with a keen eye for American religious
trends were documenting President Bush's moves the past four years,
here are some snapshots that would show up in a retrospective
album,” the New York Times started an article entitled “President
Benefits From Efforts to Build a Coalition of Religious Voters”.
“The
president framed by a nun and a cardinal on a visit to an urban Roman
Catholic school; the president screening a Holocaust film in the White
House one evening with a small group of Jewish leaders he had invited
over; the president bowing his head before addressing an evangelical
congregation.
“For
the past four years, Mr. Bush has been deliberately assembling the
building blocks of a formidable faith coalition. Pastor by pastor,
rabbi by rabbi, and often face to face, Mr. Bush has built
relationships with a diverse range of religious leaders.”
Click
to Read the Article By the New York Times
It
is worth mentioning here that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Colorado
Springs Michael Sheridan has in May warned Catholics who vote for
politicians in favor of abortion rights, stem-cell research,
euthanasia or gay marriage may not receive Communion until they recant
and repent in the confessional.
Such
and other incidents did prove effective when it was time to decide.
Read
Also…
