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Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Type Of Evangelicals Who Voted For Obama

Newsweek acknowledges that Evangelicals didn't vote for Barack Obama as much as expected, but profiles some Evangelicals who did vote for him:

Doug Paul struck out into unfamiliar territory during high school, after he read Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." The fatalism of that novella, its hopelessness about human redemption, made Paul question the value of Christian worship. With such doubts in his mind, he went on to Wheaton College in Illinois, the alma mater of the evangelist Billy Graham. There he met other Christians like him—questioning, politically engaged news junkies who confessed to each other that they were confused about God. "I basically became a functioning atheist," Paul says. "I hit reset, bulldozed my childhood education and started new." (Located in DuPage County, Wheaton exemplifies the kind of community that flipped for Obama. In 2004, Bush won DuPage by nearly 40,000 votes; in 2008, Obama won by 50,000.) In 2003, Paul was forced to leave Wheaton in disgrace. He had cheated his boss, for whom he worked summers selling books door-to-door, out of thousands of dollars by lying about his sales figures. (He eventually repaid his debt.) Infuriated, his parents yanked his tuition and allowed him to come back home on the condition that he return to church....

For Paul, as for so many evangelicals of his generation, the issue of gay rights drove a wedge in the already-widening gap between his elders and himself. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 26 percent of white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 support gay marriage, compared with 9 percent of white evangelicals older than 30. In 2006, as Virginia was preparing to vote on an amendment banning gay marriage, Southside Nazarene posted a sign near the road urging people to vote yes. SAVE OUR FAMILIES was emblazoned on the banner. Doug Paul remembers a particular Friday-night dinner with his parents that ended in silent fuming. He and his new wife, Elizabeth, were expecting a houseguest that weekend who was gay, and he expressed irritation that their church would propagate the idea that gay people preyed on children.

"I'm pretty sure I just burst out during the meal," he remembers. "I was like, 'Does this really make people feel welcome? Would we put up a sign that says SAVE US FROM ANGRY PEOPLE, or whatever other people we say have sinned?' " The table fell silent. "You could hear the clink of ice cubes in our glasses," he says. His parents say they don't remember the incident.

Paul credits Obama's campaign slogan—"Be the change you seek"—with helping him realize his dream of starting his own congregation. He prayed on the decision for months, going weekly to the driving range to think. He found the theology at Southside too punitive, its social outreach too limited. He and his peers were still pro-life, he explains, but tired of the narrow lens through which his pastors viewed the world....

Unlike Doug Paul, who voted for Kerry in 2004, Glisson had never voted for a Democrat before. Raised in a conservative suburb of Richmond, Glisson went to a Christian college and voted for George W. Bush—twice. But Obama's speech on race resonated with Glisson's own view that there are many paths to God, and Obama's position on abortion—legal but infrequent—made moral sense.

9 comments:

  1. I voted for Obama and I dont fit any of that Criteria at all. For me it was about electing a man who was the best person for the job. It's like hireing someone to clean your house you pick the person you think would do the best job not nescerlly someone you agree with relgiouslly or philosophiclly.

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  2. Hi Jason,

    I believe the following quote from Steve Hays applies:

    "The level of sheer, monumental, unteachable stupidity is something to behold."

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  3. Aaron wrote:

    "I voted for Obama and I dont fit any of that Criteria at all. For me it was about electing a man who was the best person for the job. It's like hireing someone to clean your house you pick the person you think would do the best job not nescerlly someone you agree with relgiouslly or philosophiclly."

    I don't know how you're defining "that Criteria". And a person's religious and philosophical views are relevant to who he is and whether he'll "do the best job". We've explained in depth what's wrong with Obama and why McCain was preferable. If you're interested, consult the archives.

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  4. I was saddened to see that Darrell Bock voted for Obama, as reported by Newsweek.

    -STEVE JACKSON

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  5. Wow! That makes me proud that I no longer call myself Evanjellyfish...I meant...Evangelical.

    "I was saddened to see that Darrell Bock voted for Obama, as reported by Newsweek."

    WOW! He fell for it too?!?

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  6. I voted for Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, too. Oh, yeah, I voted for Idi Amin, a few decades ago. Welcome to the next holocaust. Praise God. Black genocide of the unborn.

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  7. I wonder if the Republicans had run Alan Keyes and he won... would all of black America be going on and on about this "historic moment"? Gimmee a freakin' break. The prejudices of the culture war have nothing to do with color and everything to do with apostasy of the nation and the relativism of values.

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  8. How could any thinking Christian have voted for McCain? The Republicans have brought us debt, war, international disgrace, a foolish war in Iraq in which I served three tours, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Newt Gringrich, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham, KBR, Guantanimo, repeal of Habeaus Corpus, $4.00 per gallon gas, increase of abortions under Bush, the Katrina Debacle, etc,etc,etc,..
    Oh yeah I forgot the the Republicans are Pro-Family.
    Right???

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  9. old Charlie J Ray is just brimming to the top with the love of the lord

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