Liberal evangelical voters come out swinging
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI RELIGION WRITER
http://www.suntimes.com/output/falsani/cst-nws-fals22.html
How would Jesus swing? Much effort has been devoted to tracking the
behavior of the peculiar voting blocs that could sway this year's
presidential election.
NASCAR dads. Soccer moms. "Sex and the City" women. Angry white men.
Missourians.
Ah, but what of that most elusive of voters -- the liberal evangelical
Christian?
These are Jesus-loving, church-going, Bible-believing Christians who
take their faith seriously but don't let Jerry Falwell set their agenda.
Call them Jesus-centric centrists.
Moderate evangelicals, who hold more-or-less traditional Christian
beliefs but are slightly less active in church than those who better fit
the "religious right" stereotype, make up about 10 percent of the
electorate, according to John Green, a political scientist at the
University of Akron.
Then there are the liberal evangelicals, more theologically liberal than
their moderate brethren but still firmly encamped inside evangelical
denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention.
This most curious minority, which makes up about 2.5 percent of voters,
could end up swinging the election in Sen. John Kerry's favor, Green and
other pol watchers say.
5 spiritually motivated ideas
Evangelicals are a really big group -- almost a quarter of the American
electorate, if you include their most conservative, orthodox members.
Like Falwell.
And they're anything but monolithic, whether it comes to their taste in
film -- not all of them enjoyed "The Passion of Christ," for instance --
or their choice for president.
Take, for example, five of my roommates from Wheaton College. All are
graduates of that evangelical Christian institution in the Chicago
suburbs that counts the Rev. Billy Graham and U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert among its alumni.
Among my former roomies, there are two full-fledged soccer moms, at
least one "Sex and the City" woman, two stay-at-home moms, an Orange
County, Calif., Republican and one Missourian.
They're all churchgoing evangelicals in their 30s. Four happily call
themselves liberals. A fifth prefers to think of herself as a moderate.
When it comes to Bush vs. Kerry, these five women who share the same
faith have five different, spiritually motivated ideas about how -- or
even if -- they will cast their vote.
Kelley, a public high school teacher and mother of two from suburban St.
Louis, says Kerry has won her coveted vote. (She's the trifecta of swing
voters: liberal evangelical, soccer mom, Missourian.)
"I'm voting for him because I feel like [President] Bush has made way
too many mistakes," she said. "The war in Iraq is just a mess.... I
think Kerry has this really good common-sense plan.
"When I think about how he is going to pay for all these things, because
I feel there are a lot of really expensive initiatives he's talking
about, I don't care as much about that. I think you have to go in with
big ideas, and I applaud that."
'It seemed real to me'
Kerry's comments at the 1993 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington,
D.C., particularly impressed her.
"I'm telling you, that was the most evangelical-sounding Catholic I've
ever heard," she said. "He was really personal, powerful, and it wasn't
just faith put on for politics. It seemed real to me."
She doesn't feel that way about Bush. "It's not like I think he's not
pious, but it's something that he puts on instead of something that he
really has within him."
Melinda, an artist and stay-at-home mother of triplets who lives in
Orange County, says Bush's faith is a big part of why she'll be voting
for him next month.
"I have to vote to re-elect George," she said. "I think his belief
system is closest to my own, and although we may disagree on some
issues, I can count on him to stand firm on the ones most important to
me. Particularly the sanctity of human life. I have to vote a pro-life
ticket. It's the single most important issue for me."
Melinda is not impressed with how Kerry integrates -- or doesn't -- his
faith into his politics.
"While Kerry professes a strong belief system, I don't see it reflected
in how he has voted on certain issues," she said. "He may be wary of
imposing his values on others, but severing his moral reasoning to
please certain constituents is cowardly and ridiculous."
It looks like both of my homegirls in New York City will vote for Kerry,
although not with any great enthusiasm.
"I'm voting for John Kerry, but I'm not in love with John Kerry," said
Joanna, a single actor who lives in Brooklyn. "I'm so afraid of what can
happen to this country if there's another four years of Bush. ... You go
to war not because you want to, but because you have to. As a Christian,
that's a huge thing. I'd like to think that Bush just didn't want to
finish his daddy's war, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.
"I'm not convinced that Kerry definitely is going to be a fantastic
president. I don't have that kind of faith in him, exactly. And I hate
that I always feel it comes down to the lesser of two evils," she said.
Joanna plans to pray before she vote Nov. 2.
"I think I did that before I voted for [Al] Gore, as well," she said.
Kathy is a stay-at home mom and philanthropist who lives in Manhattan,
where she regularly attends an evangelical Protestant church.
Her faith deeply influences the choices she makes politically,
particularly, "the part of my faith that manifests itself in caring for
people with AIDS and viewing everybody as a creation of God with worth,
which is a typical, more liberal thing," she said.
She thinks she'll vote for Kerry, but Ralph Nader has a certain appeal,
too, she said.
"I don't trust any of them," she said. "I don't think a good man can be
president. Jimmy Carter was a good man, but he was a horrible president."
'Morally unable to choose'
Then there's my friend Linda, a television producer in Los Angeles who
regularly attends a Presbyterian church in Hollywood. She's ashamed to
say it, but she's not planning to vote.
"I haven't seen a candidate in years that seems thoughtful, and as a
result, I feel morally unable to choose one over the other," Linda said.
"I find myself sacrificing my beliefs in democracy to avoid making the
wrong decision."
At least take a swing.
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