President Bush was re-elected on November 2nd with a majority in both the Electoral College and in the overall turnout by more than three million votes. The election also saw Republicans increase their majority in both the U.S. House and Senate; and approval of proposed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage in all eleven states where it was on the ballot.
A post-election survey by the Barna Research Group found that born-again Christians were a “significant factor” in the President’s re-election bid. It found that born-again Christians supported the President by a 62% to 38% margin, while non-born-again voters supported Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry by a 59% to 39% division. Although Barna said the born-again population constitutes just 38% percent of the national population, it represented 53% percent of the vote cast in the election. Had the born-again public shown up proportional to its population size, Barna said Kerry would have won the election by the same three-point margin of victory enjoyed by the President. The findings were based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1004 adults.
William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, likewise said the President was re-elected with the help of the “culture voter.” “Pollsters were shocked to learn that the culture, not terrorism and not the economy, was the number one issue with many voters. In Ohio, the key state that placed Bush over the top in electoral votes, the cultural issues were cited as number one by 27% of the voters,” Murray said.
Concerned Women for America Senior Policy Director, Wendy Wright, said “evangelicals voted in force” in this year’s election, and “moral values topped the list of priorities” for many voters. “While ‘soccer moms’ could never be verified as a significant, or lasting, voting block, there is no denying that Evangelicals and conservative Catholics make up a sizeable portion of America, spanning the spectrum of other blocks such as African-Americans and Hispanics. This revelation could change the face of future campaigns. Now that both political parties recognize that Evangelicals and conservative Catholics are a formidable force that should not be ignored, we must be very careful. Shrewd politicians will look for ways to peel off our votes and to woo compromise on issues about which we have no right to bargain–such as the right for the most vulnerable to live. The current culture war is between those who believe in God and recognize that morality is crucial to a successful life and functioning society; and those who reject absolutes, whether in the form of virtue or a Supreme Being to Whom we must answer,” Wright said.
Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the “underlying story” of the election was the culture war. “Evidently, off the radar screen of the national media, there is a cultural struggle going on for the moral high ground in this culture; and conservative, traditional-values Americans of faith, in all of our denominational manifestations, made a significant, strategic advance in this election. Security Moms aside, a lot of Moms and Dads are concerned rightly about where our nation is headed. In the aftermath of the election, political prognosticators are picking up the pieces and trying to figure out what happened. More than one has suggested, the nation is undergoing a rightward shift, with George Bush as the benefactor. Yet this is not a new phenomenon. The nation has been moving to the right for more than two decades,as all surveys on religious practice and beliefs have shown. America is becoming a more religious country, and that movement has been expressed in traditional religious values,” Land stated.
The outcome of the election prompted Rev. Jerry Falwell, a co-founder of the now defunct Moral Majority, to launch The Faith and Values Coalition, a “national organization designed to maintain the national momentum gained through values-voters.” Falwell said, “The group’s central premise is to maintain an evangelical revolution of voters who will continue to go to the polls to ‘vote Christian.’ Essentially, TFVC is a 21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority.” Falwell said, the three-fold platform of the new organization is: (1) the confirmation of pro-life, strict constructionist U.S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges; (2) the passage of a constitutional Federal Marriage Amendment: and (3) the election of another socially-fiscally-and politically-conservative president in 2008, along with other state and national candidates. “Our nation simply cannot continue as we know it, if we allow out-of-control lawmakers and radical judges–working at the whims of society–to alter the moral foundations of America,” Falwell said.
However, Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, America does not need a new Moral Majority. “The people do not share Jerry Falwell’s repressive vision of an America where church and state are merged and the views of intolerant TV preachers form the basis of our laws. I welcome Falwell’s new organization to the debate. I feel confident it will meet the same fate as the Moral Majority,” Lynn said. As for his take on the election outcome, Lynn said, “The fact is, as more clear-eyed, reflective post-election analysis shows, the vast majority of voters were motivated to support Bush over issues such as terrorism, taxes and the economy–issues that have nothing to do with the so-called ‘culture war.’” Lynn continued, “So what can we expect over the next four years? The Religious Right’s goals have always been very clear: more government funding to religion through ‘faith-based’ initiatives and vouchers. A constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Altering provisions in the federal tax code so that churches can endorse candidates. A symbolic union of Christianity and government through religious displays at courthouses, public schools, city halls and so on. Watering down the teaching of evolution in public schools and forcing fundamentalist versions of Christianity in the schools in other ways. A ban on all abortions, restrictions on material deemed ‘pornographic’ by neo-Puritans and limited or no access to certain forms of birth control–even for adults.”
Pro-family groups hailed the overwhelming passage in eleven states, of constitutional amendments defining marriage as a “union between a man and a woman” and banning same-sex marriage. The measures were spurred by first-in-the-nation gay marriages that were legalized in Massachusetts earlier this year.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said, the vote reveals once again the “broad support” for protecting marriage among the American people. “The people aren’t waiting for the politicians to act to reign in activist judges who have no regard for the rule of law. The courts gave us abortion-on-demand in 1973-- the American people stated (November 2nd) that they are not going to allow the courts to do the same by imposing same-sex ‘marriage’ on the people of this country,” Perkins said.
Robert Knight, director of CWA’s Culture and Family Institute, said ,“There is absolutely no question” as to where Americans stand on this issue.” “The marriage issue was like a great cultural iceberg, plying the electoral currents. The pundits saw only the tip, and missed the greater reality. But the people understood the importance, and it’s clear that this issue helped pro-family candidates all across the country. Certainly, it didn’t hurt the ‘religious’ turnout, which broke for the President and other pro-family candidates,” Knight said.
The Alliance for Marriage, which drafted the Federal Marriage Amendment three years ago, was pleased with the eleven states’ passage of Defense of Marriage Act initiatives on the ballot. However, Alliance President Matt Daniels cautioned that “the state DOMA victories are a prelude” to what lies ahead. “Now, with the election behind, the real battle to protect marriage begins. In fact, a federal lawsuit has already been filed in U.S. District Court (in California) seeking to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Ultimately, only our Federal Marriage Amendment will protect marriage–while leaving all issues of benefits to the democratic process in the states. AFM believes this centrist approach embodied in our amendment offers hope of a democratic solution to the debate that has been forced on America as a result of activist judges.”
Daniels also said, he was encouraged that White House political adviser Karl Rove, in post-election interviews, said, the President would “absolutely” push for passage in Congress of the Federal Marriage Amendment in his second term. In one such interview, Rove stated, “Without the protection of that amendment, we are at the mercy of activist federal judges or activist state judges, who could, without the involvement of the people, determine as the Massachusetts Supreme Court did, that marriage no longer consists of a union between a man and a woman.” Rove added that the President believes, states can extend civil unions between same-sex couples, to ensure that they could make hospital visits and inherit property.
Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political organization, said, “We lost a battle, but we are winning the war. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual equality is the issue of our times. Our extraordinary new place in history means, we will win exhilarating victories, but we must be prepared for heart-breaking defeats.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is behind some of the challenges to the DOMA’s, said the lawsuits will move forward. Matt Coles, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said, “We will continue to fight for equal treatment through the courts. Same-sex couples will marry, and become fully a part of the American landscape. The promise of equality in our constitution demands no less. And sooner or later, that promise will be kept.”
However, in light of the election results, at least nine additional states are readying marriage protection amendments.
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