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Redefining 'Values Voters'
As the race for the White House heats up and the role of faith in politics is again back on the front page, it's time to debunk a myth that the only "values voters" are Christians who preach the Gospel of the Republican Party.
It's offensive to people of faith, and all citizens who bring their values into the voting booth, to assume that one political party or religion has a monopoly on morality. And it's irresponsible for the media to perpetuate old narratives now being rewritten by a powerful movement of religious Americans who are embracing a more robust vision of the common good.
Even as Christian evangelicals are increasingly diverse politically and speak out boldly about global poverty and climate change, exit polls are still stuck in the past. In Iowa and South Carolina pollsters only asked Republican voters if they were evangelicals. The false assumption is that independents or Democrats are unlikely to care much about religion, tone deaf when it comes to matters of faith, blind to biblical calls for justice and compassion.
For many years, this story line made at least some sense. Democrats often dismissed traditional religious values and pro-life positions as incompatible with progressive politics. At times, the party mistakenly conceded debates over culture, the family and bioethics to conservatives who were more than willing to galvanize voters in a strategic effort to create what the late Jerry Falwell called a "moral majority." But the so-called "God gap"-the double digit advantage Republicans have held for a decade among Americans who attend religious services once a week or more - is shrinking.
In the last congressional elections, more than half of Catholic voters (55%) supported Democrats, a significant reversal from 2004 when the GOP won a narrow majority of the Catholic vote. Religious voters who recognize economic justice is a moral issue helped minimum wage initiatives succeed in all six states where they were on the ballot. Today, Catholic and evangelical leaders are working together to expand a values debate that for too long has been dominated by partisan wedge issues and strident voices from the far right.
Rev. Larry Synder, the president of Catholic Charities USA, and Ron Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action, recently joined other prominent Christian leaders challenging President Bush to salvage his moral legacy in his last year in office by focusing on reducing poverty, ending torture and taking seriously the threats of global climate change. These are profound moral issues "values voters" care deeply about as we decide which candidate is most prepared to lead our country. When it comes to abortion, a majority of Americans recognize that building a consistent culture of life requires more than rhetoric and political pandering on the campaign trail. We need public policies that expand pre-natal care, better social services for mothers and families, and living wages for workers in order to help women choose life.
Progressives are rediscovering the truth that most transformative social movements in history would never have succeeded without the clarity of moral vision that believers brought to the struggles to end slavery, advance workers' rights or promote racial equality. Unfortunately, the press is failing to offer an accurate picture of religion in America. A study by the watchdog group Media Matters found that news coverage has overwhelmingly focused on far-right religious commentators who reinforce a "culture wars" narrative at the expense of mainstream religious voices.
This misrepresentation lacks nuance and leads to simplistic depictions. A 2006 Zogby International exit poll showed that the "moral issue" cited most by voters was the Iraq war. High percentages of voters cited greed and materialism or poverty and economic justice as "the most urgent moral crisis in American culture." The religious and political landscape is changing. It's time for the pollsters and media pundits to catch up with the story.
Alexia Kelley is the executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllI value reason over faith — where does that put me?
terrorist.
It's good to hear Catholics speaking out again on the moral issues other than abortion. We'll know a tide has turned when we hear one of these authors react in shock to a Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Kennedy (5/4, with the five all being Catholic) Supreme Court decision with SAY WHAT???????????
We have the D.C. handgun ban case and the Indiana restrict-the-voters-with-photo-ID case decisions coming this spring, as well as many others. We'll see.
To Daniel David......... yes, as a progressive catholic, I am dissapointed in these Supreme Court Justices. However, they were selected for their conservative political and economic ideologies, not for their religious faith.
To jbs...........don't be so picky about the word "moral". For a narrow religious few, it may confer absolute truth, but for the vast majority, it is is an act of personal spirituality.
I have remarked about this before, the practice of democracy is as much an excercise of the human spirit as in the practice of religion. However, in the practice of social democracy, there can be no room for absolutes. This is the error religious fundamentalism tries to play in politics.
Also, jbs........it is ridiculous to argue that Kelley is suggesting that progressives can only be moral by becoming believers. It is historical fact that the success of all major radical social movements in the past were largely due to an essential spiritual message, because such a message is transformational, and not just for the religious but for the secular as well.
To kmillard.........Values are exposed by both religious believers and the secular as well. It is conflicting personal values that constitutes the spiritual dymamics of democracy.
I would also like to point out that American catholics are just as divided on American politics as America itself. However, there is a powerful progressive movement within the catholic church in the U.S. as well in mainstream protestantism and evangelicals to educate what I call the "clueless faithful". It is all meant for political conversion by coming to know the mind of Christ.
To Thought Shaman.......I just noted your comments and they are worth repeating: "Progressives are rediscovering the truth that most transformative social movements in history would never have succeeded…(without)clarity of moral vision…"
....Amen
http://www.communitychange.org/community_values/ccv-toolkit.html
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/
both websites talk about values outside a religious context. i do not like the word moral because it frames issues as right or wrong.
"Progressives are rediscovering the truth that most transformative social movements in history would never have succeeded without the clarity of moral vision that believers brought to the struggles to end slavery, advance workers' rights or promote racial equality." is kelley suggesting that progressives can only be moral by becoming believers?
I would also like to point out that there are "values" other than those espoused by church-going Christians. The very term "values voters" assumes that anyone with a different opinion has no values, something which is both untrue and offensive.
get the fools on your side...
"Progressives are rediscovering the truth that most transformative social movements in history would never have succeeded...clarity of moral vision..."
Or is it that religious people are rediscovering that progressive values are moral? Sheesh! The transformative social movements succeeded because of individuals who espoused a progressive agenda.
It would be nice if religious people stopped treating progressives as just another "religious group" with a distinct "identity" out to impose their views on the rest of the world. To be progressive is to emphasize an "emergent approach" to addressing issues, problems, and finding solutions.
Regardless, there is much to do. It is always nice to have more support for progressive positions.
I value reason over faith -- where does that put me?
Stephen V. Riley:
Lol!, my comments objected to this position not support it: "Progressives are rediscovering the truth that most transformative social movements in history would never have succeeded…(without)clarity of moral vision…"
The reverse is likely the case - transformative social movements occur because of people espousing progressive views, etc. (refer back to previous post).
To vinlander…….It still puts you in the camp that seeks truth. Reason is an essential part of my faith.
To satr9prodxns……….as a terrorist, putting reason over faith, maybe this makes you justified in your terrorism. It has been determined that 80% of suicide bombers do it for nationalistic reasons, not blind faith.
Which brings up the big question that contantly goes unanswered, is it their terrorism or ours ??????
I don't recall any place in the New Testament where Jesus uses the phrase "Family Values."
Never saw that phrase in the Old Testament either.
But that phrase is a brilliant device, a veritable Trojan Horse for sneaking wedge issues into the electoral discourse, because it marginalizes not only every person who does not belong to the stereotypical nuclear family but also every practice that can be characterized as "anti-family."
Gay couples, gay singles, singles, widows & widowers, the homeless, couples in an open marriage, anyone who does not live the stereotypical 2-car mom & dad 2.1 children suburban stereotype is an OUTSIDER.
Of course, anyone who's actually read Jesus' teachings (seriously, how many of these hacks have actually done that?) knows it's the outsider, the poor, the widowed, the orphan that he counsels us to help.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I'd call that COMMUNITY VALUES .. not "family values" ..
Thank You Old Rascal