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I remember working in the 2004 Election about as fondly as those who attend boot camp.
It was a conservative state, in a conservative district, and more than once a day (when I was in the field with the candidate) I encounter someone asking me where the candidate was on "abortion." Jesus Christ!
I wanted to shout.
Don't you people get it? Hoping desperately that people of faith would look beyond the single issue and see the whole package.
Guess what.
This year, younger people of faith actually do get it...
This month's cover story in C&E Magazine is about the "new evangelical divide."
"It is generational; the way we view the Gospel is more well-rounded-or we see it that way," laughs Ginny, 33... "But pro-life for us is more holistic, more all of life and all of the environment-endangered species, and not just the human species."
I feel like progressives of faith have been trying to advocate this kind of thinking since they were hoodwinked in the 2004 election by fear and clever marketing on behalf of power-hungry pastors.
To put it in perspective check out these charts from a CBS poll done right after November 7, 2004.
"In the years since, white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 29 "have become increasingly dissatisfied with Bush and are moving away from the GOP," according to Cox."Just since 2005, Republican affiliation among young evangelicals has slipped from 55 percent to 40 percent..."
The most beneficial of those numbers are issues specifically. Values voters who look outside the single issue box are now seen fighting causes previously ignored by these groups a few years ago.
For example, as part of a series of blogs, Bid for Green has begun posting Unexplored Connections in dealing with the climate crisis.
C&E sees similar trends.
"Another factor is that so many Christian college students have been changed by their experience helping victims of poverty and natural catastrophe. For some, it was volunteering in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. For others, it was a spring break trip to a Third World country, now a common rite of passage for evangelical youth."
On campuses that trend continues. More and more students are becoming active in community outreach, causes that give back, preserve, clean up, or help those who need it most. In just a few short years we've managed to create a culture of compassion beyond the marketing ploys and church focus groups.
"On Christian campuses, academics have for a decade been moving away from "the either/or mindset of either fundamentalism or the Social Gospel," says Lisa Sharon Harper, author of the forthcoming Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican...or Democrat. But it's just in the last couple of years, she says, that "evangelicals en masse are beginning to realize that the Good News encompasses both." For her book, Harper interviewed 67 evangelical leaders across the country and found that "almost everybody said yes, absolutely there is a shift happening that's prevalent in this new generation."
I like the conversations now. Enhancing compassion and moving beyond "tolerance" instead to appreciation is something I find the Millennial Generation is more eager to embrace. And I say Amen to that!
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Comments (7)
see if the CBS poll would have been on one line I could have got a better screen cap... but noooo they had to make things COMPLICATED for me :)
Posted by Ally Klimkoski
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April 14, 2008 12:50 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 12:50
Lol - its like that time Lucy decided to play superman.. and she was waiting on the ledge outside the apartment for Little Ricky's birthday....
Posted by Ally Klimkoski
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April 14, 2008 1:06 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 13:06
I'm worried that the shift to this new conception of compassion as a "moral voter" once again cuts off the inter-relatedness of all these issues.
See my post related to the compassion forum - at my spot. Sorry, I didn't know how to link the two . . . I'm new to this.
Posted by Kate Ott
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April 14, 2008 3:45 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 15:45
I think before any concept of "compassion" was BS. I don't want to insult anyone but I don't for one second believe that compassionate conservatives cared anything about the rights of loving couples to be in a committed relationship - or cared about single moms who are in the vicious circle of poverty.
I have the optimism in my generation (but really anyone under 50 essentially younger than our parents) that issues outside the whole abortion/gay marriage debate are becoming increasingly more important.
I'm hard core pro-choice gay marriage advocate - but I think getting those decisions out of the discussion first - and talking about poverty and the environment first. I think once you condition their minds to things like that understanding reducing unwanted pregnancies is better than outlawing abortion - or that everyone has the right to love someone... know what I mean? Or did it just totally miss the point of your comment?
I love your blog btw.
Posted by Ally Klimkoski
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April 14, 2008 7:01 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 19:01
This is cross posted as a response to both our day's writing.
Ally, I definitely hold tight to the optimism of the "centrist" Evangelical groups' movement as a process and further movement as inevitable to include reproductive rights and sexuality issues. In fact, I pray for that!
My negative energy is directed at the forum:
I do think the Forum mischaracterized the faith voices and the issues that progressive people of faith care about more broadly. It truly was a platform for the Evangelical middle - AND, if folks had said that and someone commented on why reproductive rights and LGBT issues would not be covered . . . I might not be writing this post. This in my mind cuts off a huge group of progressive people of faith. It also lets this "new" center feel comfortable about taking on issues outside the box without re-thinking how to engage the age-old "abortion and homosexuality" staple arguments.
BTW: two colleagues at my office wrote a great article called - don't bury sexual justice beneath common ground. http://tikkun.org/magazine/tik0801/frontpage/sexual_justice
Posted by Kate Ott
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April 14, 2008 8:49 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 20:49
That sexual justice article at Tikkun is good. You girls have sparked some good conversation here today. Very enriching and exciting to see.
-Nora
Posted by Nora Thomason
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April 14, 2008 8:55 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 20:55
Kate - I totally agree with you. (thanks for the clarification). I think it cuts off a huge group of people of faith. I feel like there have been so much success for the "anti's" in the past that while we were seeing such progress now its become more like baby steps. I get really frustrated with the constant need to fight for those inalienable rights. In a free society you don't need a reason to make something legal - you need a reason to make something illegal.
I'm just throwing this out there too - but, in terms of legality I think sexual justice is a good way to fight for it - but in terms of the faith based community they hear those terms and shake their heads, and I think this get into the older community who just don't want to deal with "sex" at all! or see sex as something that is immoral across the board.
I find more agreement when I talk to conservatives of faith about the right to love and ask them about their own relationships many of which have been the most important thing in their lives and ask them "don't you want that for other people too?" and all of them agree - and start to "get it."
Posted by Ally Klimkoski
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April 15, 2008 2:48 PM
Posted on April 15, 2008 14:48