Since early in the campaign, I have been writing about how Barack Obama has the potential to realign American politics in a way not seen since the Reagan revolution. Key to this are demographic changes in the western US, and generational changes in the population in general and in particular among key constituencies like evangelicals and Cuban Americans.
Many have scoffed at the idea that a Democrat could win significant evangelical support, but polling data shows that issues like gay rights hold dramatically less weight for young evangelicals, while other issues, in particular the environment and global warming, as well as economic justice, are much more important. Huckabee's campaign, which was not supported by the evangelical establishment, was another indicator that there is seismic activity going on in this region.
Today's Washington Post reports:
This month, [Senator Obama] held a closed-door meeting in Chicago with almost 40 Christian leaders, including evangelical heavyweights such as the Rev. Franklin Graham, publishing magnate Steve Strang and megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes.Obama's campaign is also launching a grassroots effort, tentatively called Joshua Generation, with plans to hold concerts and house meetings targeted at young evangelicals and Catholics.
A political action committee set to launch this month, the Matthew 25 Network, plans to direct radio advertising and mailers to Christian communities while talking up Obama in the media. The group is not officially tied to the Obama campaign.
The "Joshua Generation" refers to the Biblical story of Moses and Joshua. Though Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and through the Red Sea to wander in the desert for 40 years, he did not enter the Land of Israel. It was Joshua, the "next generation" of leadership, that did that.
This idea that the new generation, the so-called Millennials, are the "Joshua Generation," is an idea shared by Obama and many young people on the Christian right, though they take the idea in very different directions. For Obama's version of the "Joshua Generation," see his speech at the Selma Voting Rights March Commemoration on March 4, 2007. (To my mind, his best speech to date.) For a right wing take on the same notion, check out the organization by the same name, Joshua Generation.
The fact that Obama and young conservative evangelicals speak of their mission in similar terms is being noticed. "The impressive thing about Obama is that he knows this," says evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote The Faith of George W. Bush. "This is language you expect to hear at a youth rally, not from the presidential campaign of the most liberal member of the Senate."
I am not predicting a mass exodus of young evangelicals from the Republican Party into the Obama fold But a mass exodus is not required. Given the razor thin margins of the last two presidential elections, even a small movement could have a big consequence. And if Obama wins on the basis of such a small shift, and then moves in a smart way to consolidate this support, a small change next November could grow into something much larger.
democrat's support infanticide, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, socialism, and radical environmentalism. They selectively support and oppose wars based on their political expediency (opposition to Iraq vs support for Darfur). They have no concept of national security. They support keeping illegal aliens in serfdom here rather than dealing with the problems in Mexico.
Independent for Obama '08
To say that religion has to be kept out of politics is to disenfranchise anyone with a genuine belief. Which would be unconsonsitutional, no?
personally I would worry for a political system populated solely by those with no belief. Almost as much as I would worry about a politial system populated solely by fundamentalists.
Let's just hope there aren't any more concerts with McClurkin (or those who espouse his views).
I've been around the block a few times and have met many fine people of pretty much every religious persuasion. "Born again" anything, or "Fundamentalist" anything seems to be an entirely different matter. My experience has been that those people are invariably zealots, and have no tolerance for deviation from what they believe to be "right".
If you're talking about confused people saying one thing about their religious label, and then voting in a reasonable manner in spite of it that's one thing. If you're saying moving in their direction to pick up "true believers", then I'd say that's where we're already at and we should at least say we're trying to get some place a whole hell of alot better than this.
On the other hand, if Obama can make some sensible movement out of the religious nut bags. then he really is a magician of human cooperation. It just would never be something I could bring myself to do, find a Biblical analogy to justify what should be a rational choice. Maybe that is why I am not a politician.
also, its bigotry for you to refer to all religious people as "nutbags"
That's quite a blanket statement. I know many "born again" Christians who support Obama, who cannot stand GWB and who have been against the war in Iraq from the beginning (myself included). I've also been around the block a few times and unfortunately have found intolerance and zealotry in people of every persuasion. And I know quite a few "born again" Christians who would give pretty much anyone in need the shirt off of their back, even if they are gay or just walking out of an abortion clinic .
A few years ago a Roman Catholic neighbor and his atheist wife (no, this is not a joke) and I were standing talking to another neighbor I'll call Sue, who was, for various reasons, presumed by the neighborhood to be a lesbian, but no one made much of it. My Roman Catholic neighbor started telling a tasteless lesbian joke and then Sue turned red and went into her house. I - the "born again" - then chewed out my neighbor for his rudeness to her. His wife lamely defended him, saying he was just trying to get her to come out of the closet. I told them that was her business.
If Dems want to win over evangelicals, they should start by respecting them and recognizing the fact that this group is more diverse than the
(There, I finished for you) :-)