Making room for God in America's election

Political yard signs scattered throughout Southeast Missouri tout names of Republican and Democratic candidates alike, but amid those advertisements are reminders to "Acknowledge our God" and "Vote Pro-Life" or "Elect Jesus King."

With just under two weeks until Election Day, the yard signs are evidence of the religious vote's importance and prominence in this close presidential race.

Many say the bid for the White House might well rest in the hands of Christian voters.

"Both the Republican and Democratic parties are oriented toward the 'faith' vote this presidential campaign," said Susan Henking, a professor of religious studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y.

According to surveys by Barna Research Ltd. of Ventura, Calif., people who had attended a church worship service recently are both more likely to vote and more likely to support President Bush. Evangelicals are more likely than other groups to vote in November.

"Moral values" will play a role in the decision of 64 percent of voters, according to a Pew Research Center poll that examined voters and religious issues in the campaign. But the poll also found that voters want to maintain limits on mixing religion and politics. Sixty-five percent of respondents said churches should not endorse candidates.

But Laura Jones of Cape Girardeau bases her election choices on issues like pro-life voting records and a "true faith in Christ," she said.

Religion continues to play an important role in politics "because more Christians are making their voice count," Jones said.

And while both President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry express religious faith, it's how they display that faith that grabs voters' attention. Bush is overtly religious and goes out of his way to talk about his faith, while Kerry doesn't make it a part of his politics, said Dr. Russell Renka, a political science professor at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau.

That difference is what makes Bush popular with evangelical Christians and unpopular with secular Democrats, Renka said.

Political observers say that religious involvement in the political campaign has intensified this year. Area churches have organized voter-registration drives, invited candidates to speak at Sunday services, and clergy have even made the election a sermon topic.

Knowing a candidate's principles helps voters decide how to cast their ballot, said the Rev. A.G. Green, founding pastor of Rhema Word Breakthrough Ministries in Cape Girardeau.

During the summer, Green invited several candidates to speak to his congregation so that church members would be well-informed when it came time to go to the polls.

Tax-exempt organizations can legally prepare and distribute nonpartisan voter guides that don't make endorsements or give any one candidate greater prominence than others. Most churches don't take any stand, but rather encourage members to be good citizens and issue reminders about voting dates.

This sensitivity by voters of faith is something the political parties -- which have hired religious outreach directors -- are aware of.

The Rev. David Keyes is the Missouri religious coordinator for the Kerry-Edwards campaign.

"I can't as a person of faith simply step back and say I'm above it all," said Keyes, 59, a minister in both the Unitarian Universalist Church and United Church of Christ, which are among the more liberal denominations. "It's not what Jesus would have done, it's not what I can do. If we're interested in people's health and well-being, if we're interested in the quality of human life, I feel we have to get involved."

In the Republican Party, many of the activists are also religiously affiliated, thus giving them a greater amount of influence, Renka said.

Democrats might turn out to be more appealing to voters who don't endorse conservative Christian ideology when it comes to issues like family values, said Dr. Colleen E. Kelley, a professor of speech communication at Penn State's Erie, Penn., campus.

"Certainly, religion is a factor in any American political race because most Americans are religious, if not churchgoing, people. Because religion contributes to Americans' attitudes, beliefs and values and because politics has much to do with appealing to the electorate's beliefs, a savvy candidate will, at least on occasion, play to the religious aspects of the electorate," Kelley said.

Those religious aspects show up when candidates speak about homosexual unions, stem-cell research, abortion and the war in Iraq, said Tim Drake, a staff writer for Faith and Family Magazine and the National Catholic Register. "These are issues which religious voters are deeply concerned with."

Religion has become "a very basic part of the political lines of division" among U.S. parties, Renka said.

The beauty of America's religious freedom is that "we're free to let it play as much or as little a role as we wish," Renka said. "There isn't a public standard."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

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