NYT: Pres. Benefits from Religious Voter Coalition (not just evangelicals)

[DeepModem Mom]

FAITH GROUPS
President Benefits From Efforts to Build a Coalition of Religious Voters
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: November 5, 2004


....For the past four years, Mr. Bush has been deliberately assembling the building blocks of a formidable faith coalition. Pastor by pastor, rabbi by rabbi, and often face to face, Mr. Bush has built relationships with a diverse range of religious leaders.

The payoff came on Tuesday. For all the credit claimed by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush owes his victory to a formula that includes conservative Catholics, mainline Protestants, Hispanics, Jews and Mormons.

The president's strategists set out to improve his showing among not just evangelicals, but also Catholics, Jews, Hispanics and African-Americans by appealing to the social conservatives in each of those groups who felt alienated and disrespected by a popular culture that in their minds trivializes religion. In all of those groups, he won more of them over than he did four years ago, although the increase among African-Americans was negligible.

The pivotal group may have been Catholics, who make up 27 percent of voters. According to surveys of voters conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, the president improved his showing by five percentage points among Catholics, from 47 percent in the 2000 election to 52 percent this year. In Ohio, where the Bush campaign sent thousands of field workers to Catholic churches, the margin was 55 percent to 43 percent for Senator John Kerry....

***

The president also did better among Hispanic voters: from 35 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2004. There are more Hispanic voters now than there were four years ago (going from 6 to 8 percent of the electorate), and many of them are either Catholic or evangelical. Among Hispanic evangelicals, 60 percent voted for the president; among Hispanic Catholics it was 39 percent (a lesser share than among Catholics as a whole)....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/politics/campaign/05religion.html

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. I tell ya..we all gotta go to church for the next two years

start out with bless our president, then slowly sow discontent amongst them.

[kikiek]

2. They're lining up for their handouts as we speak. Bought them.

I can't believe how many Catholics said their church was telling them to vote for Bush. Here in MN it didn't work. Many did, but more didn't. These Christians think they're on the same team now, but as my husband says look to Ireland. Just because they're Christian doesn't mean they're going to get along. Not to mention many think the Catholics are hellbound anyways. I think they're all going to be in the same handbasket.

[ihaveaquestion]

3. Build up the power of liberal churches.

There are several liberal churches that we can join and support to counteract the radical religious right.

Two very welcoming congregations that I know of:

United Church of Christ (Christian) - http://www.ucc.org/

Unitarian Universalist (non-denominational) - http://www.uua.org/

Another option is to join the church of your choice and help build up the moderate/liberal faction from within.

[lcooksey]

4. Liberal religious groups to consider

The Interfaith Alliance and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. We're not going to win back the White House by ignoring Christians. We've got to win more of them over by emphasizing equality, care for the poor, care for the elderly, and other mainstream values.

It is a myth that religious people are anti-gay. Surveys show that 50 to 60% of people think civil unions should be allowed. Since most Americans consider themselves religious, most of that 50 to 60% are religious people.

[lancdem]

5. Oh great

So Kerry lost Catholics, too.

:mad:

[AndyTiedye]

7. The US Catholic Hierarchy Has Joined the Dominion

in defiance of their Pope.

[74dodgedart]

6. The next big battle is the religious right vs. the Republicans..

The red states are going to flip themselves.

Bush isn't going to deliver what the religious right wants and Republicans like Mccain, Hagel, Specter etc. aren't going to roll over.

I believe that there are a lot of Republicans who aren't ready to sell their soul to Pat Robertson just yet..

[AndyTiedye]

8. They Already Have Sold Their Souls

They will not oppose the Fundies. It doesn't look like anybody will.