Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Evangelical Christians?Don?t forget to (not) vote


Election Day is just weeks away, and anybody who has a media platform is telling us all to vote. If you haven't yet registered or paid any attention to the issues—if you don't know the difference between George Bush and George Washington or are as dumb as a rock—you should still vote. It's your civic duty.

Unless, it seems, you're an evangelical Christian or a member of the religious right. Then, it's OK to stay home.

You could almost discern a "don't vote" message in the news and commentary following the Mark Foley scandal.

Republican Party social conservatives may stay home Election Day because a gay Republican congressman was trading dirty instant-messages with a young man in the page program! GOP "values voters" may not vote because they're disenchanted to learn that gay Republicans work on Capitol Hill!

And on CBS' "60 Minutes" the message moved from the implicit to the explicit: Evangelical Christians should take a break from politics. That was the word from David Kuo in an interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS, which is a sister company of the publisher of Kuo's new book, "Tempting Faith."

"I think that Christians need, particularly evangelical Christians, need to take a step back, to have a fast from politics," Kuo said. "People are being manipulated."

A fast from politics—how convenient. Just in time for the 2006 elections.

It's easy to be cynical about the attention that "60 Minutes"—and the rest of the media—are now lavishing on Kuo or about his specific (and disputed) claims. Another hitherto unknown ex-White House aide coming out of nowhere to knock the Bush administration ... on the eve of an election ... on "60 Minutes." Richard Clarke, call your office.

But let's look at Kuo's general points. Has the White House manipulated evangelicals and should they take, if you will, a political sabbatical?

His evidence for manipulation? Evangelicals have received little in return for backing Bush. A stem cell bill veto, but that's about it. Never mind the partial-birth abortion ban Bush signed into law, the judges—including two Supreme Court justices—he's fought for or the federal marriage amendment he's championed. Kuo points specifically to Bush's faith-based program, where Kuo worked. Bush, he claims, promised a program in the billions and delivered one in the tens of millions.

But didn't the program face opposition in Congress and compete for presidential attention with 9/11 and the war on terror?

"It all comes down to the fact that if the president wanted it, he would have gotten it," Kuo declares.

How naive. Bush is a U.S. president, not Caesar.

Then there's the notion that evangelical Christians are just there to be manipulated. It's a familiar theme. The idea is that these poor folks are too dumb to recognize their own economic interests and are easy prey for pols who get them all lathered up about social issues. It's doubtless a reassuring notion in coffeehouses, country clubs or wherever two or more secularists are gathered. But it's an insulting and inaccurate stereotype, though one that's still acceptable in polite company.

This week's manipulation claims recall the 1993 Washington Post article that said conservative Christians "are largely poor, uneducated and easy to command." Only now they're receiving "60 Minutes"-approved advice to forget politics.

Yes, that ought to help.

Politics is a frustrating business, and it's often tempting to want to retreat to the catacombs. But what kind of world would conservative Christians return to upon breaking their fast? What if they stopped fighting for their values at the ballot box? Our abortion laws would remain some of the world's most extreme? Our legal system would be less protective of traditional marriage? Our Supreme Court would have fewer justices in the mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito? All a political fast would prove is that conservative Christians are as uneducated and easy to command as some in the secular world believe.

Which is why it's unlikely to happen—despite last week's "don't vote" public-service message from the advocates of civic uplift at CBS.




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