by Gabe Lyons and Jonathan Merritt
Most the votes have been counted and it seems the GOP has made historic gains in Congress. At least 60 Democrats have now been replaced in the House of Representatives and at least six have been sent packing in the Senate. President Obama called it a “shellacking” in a press conference today.
These numbers shouldn’t be a complete shock to those who have been watching the election coverage. Gallup’s generic ballot had been predicting the shift for some time. But what may surprise you is the noticeable absence of the Christian right during these midterms.
The last time we saw a so-called “Republican revolution” was in 1994 when no Republican incumbent lost and America witnessed a 54-seat swing. In that year, unlike this one, Christian right political advocates were among the most notable and vocal voices. Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, for example, was at its political peak and distributed 40 million copies of the "Family Values Voters Guides" in more than 100,000 churches nationwide. As a result, one national poll showed 27 percent of all voters that year self-identified themselves as born-again Christians, compared with 18 percent in 1988.
By 2008, however, the Christian tide had turned. With the newly formed "Religious left" at the forefront of Obama's campaign, many Christians crossed party lines for the first time. Double the number of young evangelicals voted for Obama than for Kerry in 2004.
This year, Christians mobilized again for Republicans but they did so under a different banner than the religious right. Namely, the Tea Party. No Christian voter guides, no focusing on families, and no touting that we’re either moral or a majority.
Why has this happened?
In large part, it's because the Christian right has failed to enlist sufficient numbers of young recruits in their movement. As noted in the book UnChristian, most young Americans have been turned off by the religious right's politics, as well as the judgmentalism and hypocrisy that now marks American Christianity. While faith still informs the way young believers cast votes, it doesn't express itself in such vicious partisanship as years past. In recent polls, more young Christians self-identify as "centrist" than either "conservative" or "liberal."
Additionally, de-enlisted older Christians increasingly share the sentiments of these un-enlisted young Christians. A cross-generational weariness with the culture wars has set in among all Christians, which partially accounts for their absence in current battles. According to a recent LifeWay Research poll, only 28% of evangelicals believe they will see a significant contribution from current Christian leadership in resolving pressing social concerns.
Without new faces or an invigorated contingency, the Christian right has found itself in the middle of a leadership vacuum. Many stalwart Christian conservatives like Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy passed away while others, including James Dobson and Pat Robertson, have been able to exert far less influence. According to Politico, "Without a charismatic figure carrying the banner, the religious right has been eclipsed by the fiscally focused tea party."
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Bill Beahan said:
Are You Serious?
The Christian Right turned out in huge numbers. The moral issue this time was not the murder of the unborn championed by Barack Obama and the Democrat Party but the theft of huge amounts of money from the working people of this country and the theft of our children's future. One of the Ten Commandments replaced another as the main concern.
The "Social Justice" crowd may believe it is ok to take money from someone at the point of a gun (governmental force) as long as the money is put to some "good" use like giving it to someone who will vote for the person in charge of "transferring" the money. Jesus told the wealthy and his followers to give THEIR OWN money. Nowhere in the Bible did he sanction taking from one against their will to give to another.
The problem with Christian young people today is that some mega-churches have watered down Christianity so much that young people do not have a strong enough foundation in the Word and are easily swayed by those who intentionally or unintentionally mislead them with "relevance" instead of revelations.
Posted: November 8, 2010
Jonathan Merritt said:
Bill,
Welcome back.
You missed the point of the article. I was not saying that Christians were a non-factor in this election, but rather that Christian political organizations were a non-factor. I was speaking about the "Christian right" as an institution, not as individuals.
In this election, the tea party was the institution stealing all the headlines, not the Christian coalition.
Jm
Posted: November 8, 2010
Dave said:
I don't think the Christian right was absent. I think the circus created by many of the extreme candidates was a major distraction in this area, so it seemed they were absent. And I continue to be disgusted at the political process, as it continues to degrade...yes, all parties are playing the same game (GOP, Dem, and TPs)...all they really care about is getting elected and controlling people, and they don't care about the people they represent.
And for the supposed "moral" issue mentioned by Bill, the mess this country is in is a result of both parties, the GOP and the Dems. Bush left this country in a horrible mess, and Obama hasn't made it any better. It's time for all of us to demand that our Congress put their political differences aside, and truly work together for the good of the people, not their political motives. All this polarizing crap has to end.
Posted: November 16, 2010
Mike said:
Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition have been irrelevant for well over a decade now, so I'm kind of puzzled by your trumpeting that they weren't a factor in this election. So what? Conservatives and independents still voted.
As for the Christian left, there isn't one to speak of and they certainly didn't influence Obama's victory in any meaningful fashion. If they did, they were noticeably silent in the most recent election, weren't they?
There have always been liberal evangelical voters, just as there have always been conservative African Americans. In both cases, neither is much of an influence on the party they identify with.
If the Left ever does get organized, I'm sure it will be as much of a political circus as the Christian right organizations, and probably more so. The Jim Wallises of the world ("I didn't accept any money from George Soros you liar, oops I received $250,000") will guarentee plenty of political intrigue.
Posted: November 20, 2010
Bill Beahan said:
Jim Wallis represents the "Christian" Left:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/25/hon
Posted: November 23, 2010