"But we have to COURT the religious vote...W-A-A-H..."

[onager]

I was just poking around The Barna Group website, looking for something to post in another thread. (The "religion is bad for societies" one.)

Now The Barna Group is run by a diehard Evangelical, George Barna. Mr. Barna has been doing polling on religious issues for over 20 years, and he routinely drives Fundies batshit by honestly reporting his findings.

Back when the media were sanctimoniously bleating about a "huge faith resurgence" after 9/11, Barna tracked this Great Awakening II. He found exactly what most of us suspected: church attendance went up for a couple of weeks after the attacks, then settled right back to its usual levels. There was never any huge religious movement because of 9/11.

And he can be funny, however unintentionally. Commenting on the lopsided divorce rate among Xians vs. non-believers, Mr. Barna sniffs that one reason it's higher is that non-Xians are more likely to "co-habit."

Anyway, while wandering around there, I found this jaw-dropper:

Bush Decisively Won Born Again Vote, But Gore Gained Most of the Born Again Voters Who Decided Late (November 13, 2000)

(Ventura, CA) Texas Governor George W. Bush won the born again Christian vote nationwide by a comfortable 57% to 42% margin. The born again vote was one of the most supportive constituencies drawn to the Republican candidate in last week's election.

However, an analysis of the born again vote by the Barna Research Group shows that Vice President Al Gore had growing momentum among the born again segment, winning more than 80% of the born again votes that were decided between Labor Day and Election Day.

http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=75

[GOPFighter]

1. Interesting website

Another interesting tidbit: " Bush carried the vote among adults who attend mainline Protestant churches (e.g., American Baptist, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and United Methodist) by an even bigger margin than among the born again segment (58% to 40%). Since those churches tend to favor more liberal-leaning, Democratic candidates, this choice was unexpected."

I was surprised, too. I'll bet this wasn't the case in 2004. In 2000 they probably believed Bush was a compassionate conservative. By 2004 it was obvious they had been lied to.