It's very much an up-in-the-air thing right now between Obama and McCain for me. --Mike Butler, Southern Baptist Convention Delegate
The Southern Baptists held their annual convention in Indianapolis this week and some strange noises have been heard from that quarter. Some of the Republican base are actually considering voting for Obama this year.
Even the evangelicals who are sticking with McCain lack enthusiasm.
Barack Obama, meanwhile, is striking at the heart of the GOP by reaching out to people that past Democratic presidential candidates conceded without a second thought.
Read more.
If there is one group you would think John McCain could count on in the General Election, it would be evangelical Christians. But McCain has serious problems with the heart and soul of the Republican Party this year, and Barack Obama is working to make gains.
Consider the tone of the comments at the annual Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) this week, as reported by NPR's Day-to-Day:
"There just don't seem like there's a candidate that anybody's excited about." --Tom Patterson
"I can't see that Southern Baptists are going to come out very strongly for one individual." -- Sarah Burke
"I get an odd sense with the SBC. It's almost like a quietness. I've not heard the excitement about the election on either side." --Marcus Redding
Talk about malaise! Even those who express support for McCain have reservations.
"I guess [McCain's] not as charismatic, maybe, as Obama--even though I'm not gonna vote for Obama--but I don't feel a connection to McCain like I did Bush." --Lee Pigg
"A lot of Southern Baptists are very glad to see a pro-life candidate, but there are a lot of issues involved in choosing a president and that's just one of them." --Doug Munton
"Well, [McCain] says he's Baptist, but I don't know what church he's a member of." --Patterson
And some are seriously looking at Obama.
"Obama has an understanding of some things that we have totally missed. He is in touch with the whole racial issue. We can't just say, 'That's going to happen by itself.'" --Bev Olindo
And some Southern Baptists are apparently rethinking their entire stance on religion's role in Republican politics.
"I hope that [we won't be as involved]. I think it's to our detriment. I think it's sidetracked us from our purpose on Earth. I think it's watered down the message of the Gospel." --Loren Hutchinson
"God is not a Democrat or a Republican. To me it's like humbling ourselves before God and [asking], 'Lord, who do You want?'" --Olindo
Even the enthusiasm for George Bush himself seems to be slipping away according to this report from the Reuter's blog:
U.S. President George W. Bush got polite applause Tuesday for his brief, pre-taped video address to the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest evangelical denomination, which is holding its annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
That stood in marked contrast to the standing ovations he received last year from the same group when he did a live broadcast link to its meeting in San Antonio.
...
The lukewarm response may also reflect a cooling of conservative evangelicals toward the Republican Party.
White evangelical Protestants did more than any other group to put Bush into the White House and there is a feeling among some that he did not pursue their anti-abortion and gay rights agenda with the vigor they had hoped for.
They are also cool towards presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Several interviewed by Reuters saw him as the lesser of two liberals in the November White House matchup with his Democratic rival Barack Obama.
Obama and his supporters are taking active steps to drive a wedge between evangelicals and the Republican Party and perhaps win over moderate and younger evangelicals. On Tuesday, as reported here by franklyn4 Obama had an extraordinary meeting in Chicago with some of the most conservative evangelical leaders. That same day, a new political action committee, the Matthew 25 Network, which is dedicated to getting Christians to vote for Obama but is not affiliated with the campaign, held its first fundraiser in Washington, D.C. In addition, as Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) senior national correspondent David Brody reported on June 6:
A source close to the Obama campaign tells The Brody File the following:
"The Joshua Generation project will be the Obama campaign's outreach to young people of faith. There's unprecedented energy and excitement for Obama among young evangelicals and Catholics. The Joshua Generation project will tap into that excitement and provide young people of faith opportunities to stand up for their values and move the campaign forward."
The official rollout won't be for another two weeks or so, but The Brody File has been told the activities will include house parties, blogging, concerts and more.
The logo looks like this:
Brody expounded on the Obama-Evangelical outreach in an interview with NPR's Michelle Norris on All Things Considered on Wednesday to discuss Obama's closed-door meeting with the religious leaders and what it means. My transcript follows:
Brody: The purpose of the meeting was really to start a dialog and clearly that happened. It wasn't just with Christian conservatives but also moderate and progressive pastors. It was a whole spectrum, Michelle, and that is playing to the Barack Obama brand. I mean think about that meeting yesterday. There was TD Jakes in a room with Richard Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals, a very conservative organization. You had Max Lucado, a best-selling Christian author, in that room as well and Doug Kmiec, a pro-life Catholic constitutional law professor. I mean there are some real conservative guys. I mean Doug Kmiec endorsed Mitt Romney in the primary season. So Barack Obama is clearly trying to make a statement by saying, "Listen, I'm about a new type of politics, and this new type of politics includes reaching out to everyone across the religious spectrum."
Norris: If John McCain invited 30 religious leaders to a sit-down in a conference room with him, would they show up?
Brody: "Yes, I think they would, and I think they would because evangelical leaders want a conversation with John McCain. The question is, you know, How much will John McCain get on his soapbox and talk about the life issue, the [gay] marriage issue, embryonic stem cell research [and] some other issues that are really important to conservatives? Michelle, you know it hasn't been John McCain's way in the past. I mean, he is a centrist; he's a guy that's right of center but he's not a guy that's going to champion the life or [gay] marriage issue causes. He's a reliable vote when it comes to the life issue, but part of the problem and the reason that the social conservatives and some of the leaders here are concerned is that John McCain isn't able to actually go ahead and speak to the issues in a real fervent and a forceful way. They're not going to mobilize as well for him in the fall.
Norris: Some would argue that many Christian conservatives feel Barack Obama is on the wrong side of many of these issues, like abortion and civil unions. Who has the steeper hill to climb?
Brody: Well, Barack Obama has a hill to climb, but sometimes at the end of the day, whether you be a Christian or Jew or Muslim or no religion at all, you want to be respected, and, you know, Barack Obama has taken steps to indeed say, "Listen, we understand there is a moral component to abortion." He understands, at least in the books he has written and speeches that he's given, that there is a concern that he has on that side of the issue. So there is a respect factor involved.
Norris: Let me stop you, David. So people will say, "Barack Obama respects us; we're going to look past his support for abortion or civil unions"?
Brody: No, I think he's not going to get the ardent pro-life and pro-traditional marriage crowd. Having said that, let's remember two things are going on here. One, he's really appealing to more of the moderate evangelicals and also young evangelicals. What do we mean by that? It means that the spectrum is broader. The playing field is broader. It's not just about life and [gay] marriage; it's about poverty and it's about the genocide in Darfur and climate change and other issues. And so this is the conversation that's actually taking place in homes with the teen--the Obama teen. They are saying to their folks, "We understand you have concerns about his stance on abortion, but we want you to look at the broader picture." Is it a hill to climb? Sure. But with moderate evangelicals and even young evangelicals, I think the terrain is better for Obama, no doubt."
All that sounds nice, but what are the numbers? As reported by ABC News online:
Evangelical white Protestants favored McCain over Obama by 66 to 26 percent. (White Catholics, who are swing voters, divided about evenly, 45 to 47. Nonreligious voters split 32 to 62 percent.)
...
"Obama could never appeal to the majority of white evangelicals. The question is: Can he make more of a dent than Kerry [who took 21 percent against Bush]?" asked [John C.] Green [of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life].
Another interesting tidbit from the ABC article is this:
In an unscientific online poll conducted early in the primaries by Relevant Magazine, a publication aimed at college-aged Christians, 28.7 percent of respondents to the question "Who would Jesus vote for?" picked Obama, 4 percent more than preacher and former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and nearly five times as many votes than John McCain received.
Many young evangelicals are drawn to Obama because he is willing to discuss openly his own faith, something McCain rarely does.
"There has been a great deal of criticism for Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright. But there is no talk of McCain's pastor, because he doesn't have one. He simply is not a religious person in the way many evangelicals want their president to be. McCain represents a good secular person. They regard him highly, but they don't see him as a person of faith," said [Tony Campolo, a progressive pastor and professor who advises the DNC on matters of faith and religion].
Perhaps the most encouraging statement of all is this one:
"There was a real desire and interest for a place that's appropriate for Christians to talk about faith and share the values in Chapter 25 of the Book of Matthew in which Jesus calls on us to care for the least among us," said Mara Vanderslice, the PAC's founder, who did similar outreach for the Kerry campaign in 2004.
"Americans see the price of gas going above $4, they're losing their jobs, their children are going overseas to fight and when they bow their heads, those are the issues -- not abortion or gay marriage – that they're really praying about."
The landscape is changing. Evangelicals realize that McCain is an empty shell when it comes to faith, while Obama is the real deal. Although many anti-abortion and anti-gay hard-liners won't vote for Obama, many people who believe the central theme of Christianity is to "Love one another" are responding to Obama's outreach.
And for my fellow progressives who worry that Obama will infuse religion into government, I say, have no fear--and I am an atheist. Unlike the waffling John McCain, Obama remains steadfast in his positions on abortion rights and civil unions, even when talking to the most conservative of evangelicals. Keep in mind, too, that Obama, a constitutional law professor himself, believes strongly in the separation of church and state.