Sunday, January 27, 2008

Going After Evangelicals

Obama's campaign is clearly targeting evangelicals. In an interview with
Christianity Today he said the following:

You know, I think that there's been a set of habits of thinking
about the interaction between evangelicals and Democrats that
we have to change. Democrats haven't shown up. Evangelicals
have come to believe often times that Democrats are anti-faith.
Part of my job in this campaign, something that I started doing
well before this campaign, was to make sure I was showing up
and reaching out and sharing my faith experience with people
who share that faith.

He's right. However, I wonder why aren't the liberal "anti-faith" voices speaking
out against Obama's campaign since they often decry that Republicans are too cozy
with religious people and they fear a theocracy. Where is the same contempt that is
often shown at the "religious right"?

The question is the Democratic Party ready to welcome church goers into their
fold? Evangelicals, like me, don't hold mainstream cultural viewpoints so that might
not align with a party that likes polls and tries to capture public opinion. And are
evangelicals ready to listen to what Democratic party has to say?

I think it's a good thing that both parties try to reach out to the evangelical community.
In the future we will probably see evangelicals no longer overwhelming supporting
one particular party, which is a good thing. They will split like the rest of America.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Often I think that the Democrats' support of the constitution when it comes to separation of church and state. A friend of mine said a few years back that the Democrats needed to get better at walking that fine line.

I strongly believe that religion is a dangerous thing to govern based on - but I also understand that it is part of our culture, and the beliefs and concerns of the religious need to be addressed and answered.

Anonymous said...

Oops - what I meant to say there is:

Often I think that the Democrats' support of the Constitution when it comes to separation of church and state is confused with a lack of faith.