Articles

RELIGION PLAYED A ROLE IN U.S. ELECTION

by Bishop Paul Peter Jesep

"For false Christs and false prophets will rise
and show great signs and wonders to deceive . . ."
Matthew 24:24

Christian evangelicals had a disproportionate influence in America's 2004 presidential election. Perhaps the evangelical darkness of false prophets is descending on the republic. Their clout has more to do with political gamesmanship, however, than the country's embrace of strident moral values often selectively applied. In many ways, Republican President George W. Bush, the benefactor of evangelical activism, did a better job turning out his core base of support than his Democratic opponent.

     Bush won a second term with a historic 59.4 million votes. Evangelicals comprised about twenty percent of this support. They believed that moral values - specifically God, abortion, and gay marriage - were overriding issues. About thirteen million votes, from over 115 million cast, reflected this concern --tipping several states including Ohio and Florida into the Bush column.

     Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, never bothered to challenge evangelical Republican Christians on moral values. The party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton never offered an opposing platform. President Bill Clinton, for example, would say of abortion in the Deep South that it needed to be legal, safe, and rare. The operative word here is "rare." Kerry never had the ability to find a way to neutralize or make the social conservative electorate tolerant of his perceived radical liberal views.

     There is a double standard in all of this God-talk coming from the Christian right that Kerry also failed to underscore. Evangelicals are not calling for a repeal of no-fault divorce which ends fifty percent of all marriages in the United States. Nor do they want to criminalize marital infidelity. Some may recall that then conservative Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an affair with a staffer at the same time he insisted on the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for lying under oath about an affair with a White House intern. Talk show entertainer and social values advocate Rush Limbaugh, under investigation for abusing prescription drugs, has recently filed for another divorce.

     U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (who recently resigned) is another example of conservative double-talk. He directed the U.S. Justice Department to promote Christian virtue in the pursuit of law, order, and justice. It's another example how a twisted theology is being used to shape public policy. His latest crusade is against adult entertainment - an industry with strong links to conservative Republicans. No Bush campaign donor linked to it, however, is being taken to task.

     One journalist reported that "The Comcast cable network . . . offers hardcore porn from the Hot Network channel as part of is premium package. Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, helped organize the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia." Comcast gave $1 million to support the convention.

     Despite this selectively applied set of values, votes for President Bush do not entirely reflect interest for a conservative social agenda. As noted above not all of the 59.4 million votes cast for him reflect concerns about morality. Many of his supporters thought Senator Kerry elitist, indecisive, and contradictory. The Democratic Party may not have nominated the strongest challenger to a wartime commander-and-chief.

     Many Bush supporters, even those who support a woman's reproductive rights, put terrorism and the national economy high on the priority list. Although Americans have never voted a wartime president out of office, it is important to note that the states most directly impacted by 9-11 - New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania - voted for Senator Kerry, not President Bush.

     Before evangelicals celebrate an ideological revolution they should keep in mind the moderate wing of the Republican Party. U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine, enthusiastically supported the president's reelection. And yet both are strong proponents of a woman's reproductive rights, civil rights for gays and lesbians, and voted against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

     Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, nov to a fifth term, is also a moderate Republican. He is expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee which will play a very important role when President Bush makes nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court. He, like Collins and Snowe, is pro-choice and a supporter of gay and lesbian rights. It will be very telling if Specter, despite his seniority, is pushed aside by radical social conservatives as judiciary chair.

     These three moderates are joined by Liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, former Liberal Republican Senator turned Independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont, maverick Senator John McCain of Arizona, and pragmatic conservative Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska as potentially the most powerful block of U.S. Senators. Currently, the Republicans hold a five-member edge in a 55-45 chamber which prevents Republican social conservatives from ending filibusters which require 60 votes. The six men and women noted above have the potential to limit the impact of radical Christian evangelicalism.

     Will they have the political backbone to challenge a nov wartime president should his social agenda move even further to the right? They will have enormous power - yet will they use it? Time will tell.

     Unlike Bush's first four years, there is a strong hope that he will not again show the hubris of "my way or the highway" mentality. While he did receive more votes this year than any nov president in history, there also is an equally historic number of votes against him exceeding 55 million for Senator Kerry. Approximately 48 percent of those who took the time to vote had strong reservations about Bush's handling of Iraq, civil liberties, the economy, terrorism, and his pursuit of a divisive, exclusive social agenda.

     Evangelicals are expecting Bush to fight for a range of issues for having put him over the top in the election. They want Supreme Court justices that will allow a Christian God in government and public schools, the scaling back of civil rights for gays and lesbians, and the one issue that has caused much angst in America for decades -the repeal of a woman's reproductive rights.

     Oddly, as evangelicals try to inch the country toward a theocracy its agenda has secularized God. Its advocacy for school prayer, for example, suggests that God can be called and dismissed like a light switch. It suggests that parents are not teaching their children to be aware of God's presence at all times. Evangelicals imply that parents have failed to teach their children to pray therefore the federal government must step in. What ever happened to Ronald Reagan's mantra of keeping government out of the lives of Americans?

     The 2004 Republican National Convention kept evangelical firebrands Ralph Reed, Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Rev. Pat Robertson in the closet. Their public presence was not wanted. Bush used moderates like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and maverick Senator John McCain as prime time speakers. Campaign strategist Karl Rove knew the president could not be nov without a direct appeal to centrist thinking Americans. These prime time speakers must be mindful that they now have a duty to speak out publicly to keep the president from moving too far to the right on social issues.

     In his first four years, Bush governed in a socially conservative manner never alienating his base. He lost the popular vote in 2000, yet won enough states to capture sufficient electoral votes to clinch the election. This year, he is no longer in the shadow of presidential illegitimacy thanks, in part, to evangelical voters.

     Will Bush now turn his back on the uncompromising evangelicals he no longer needs? Due to a constitutional limitation there will be no third term. Or will he turn away from the many more millions of ideologically centrist Americans who voted for him because of the war and economy. Will he keep in mind the many millions who never agreed with him the first or second time he ran for president?

     Thomas Paine --one of America's greatest Founding Fathers-said: "Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man." Four years ago Bush campaigned on "compassionate conservatism" and insisted that he was "a uniter, not a divider." Today, America is more divided than ever before. May President Bush --a man of deep faith-- remember Thomas Paine's wisdom and Christ's greatest teaching to love one another as he loved us.

Bishop Paul Peter Jesep is Vicar General and Chancellor of the Archeparchy for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church-Sobornopravna of Europe and the Americas. He may be reached at VladykaPaulPeter@aol.com. The views expressed here are strictly personal and do not reflect the positions of the Church.