evangelical movement grows in Canada

The NY Times reports that extremist religous groups are gaining ground in Canada because of that country's legalization of same-sex marriage:

Before now, the Christian right was not a political force in this mostly secular, liberal country. But it is coalescing with new clout and credibility, similar to the evangelical Christian movement in the United States in the 1980s, though not nearly on the same scale.

Today, half a dozen organizations like the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada work full time in Ottawa, four of which opened offices in the past year, all seeking to reverse the law allowing gay marriage.

hat-tip: Evangelical Right

N.C. Baptists Ban Open and Affirming Churches

The 1.2 million-member Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted overwhelmingly to kick out any member church that welcomes lesbian and gay members:

"Could it be that homosexuality gains our attention primarily because it's not 'our' sin?" said Rob Helton, a messenger from Cherry Point Baptist Church in Havelock. "If we write a policy (on homosexuality), it seems only fair and right that we write a policy on every sin in the Bible."

Hat tip: Evangelical Right

take back the v-word

In USA Today:

Let's move past this hubris and damn-the-opponents rhetoric. We all have values. Let the majority of us who are not members of the "values voters" club continue to take back the v-word and proclaim the values that we've always acted — and voted — upon. Does opposition to the war in Iraq represent an absence of values? Anything but.

What is it if not deeply rooted principles and ideals — values, in other words — that moves so many Americans to oppose the war? We insist on truth-telling by our political leaders. We respect human life, which is why it saddens and outrages us to contemplate the deaths of American soldiers and of many tens of thousands of Iraqis. We hope and pray for a peaceful world in which war, if it must come, is a last resort, not a favored option.

Dwight Moody, a Baptist minister and writer on religion and culture, had this to say about values in a recent e-mail exchange with me: "Progressives, moderates and liberals are also undergirded by deeply held moral convictions, much of it driven by a religious and Christian view of the world: the value of creation, the dignity of the human person, the need for equity and justice, the cause of the poor and the dispossessed. These are values rarely articulated by the religious right, but they run deep and wide in the Bible."

Denial ain't just a river

James Dobson apparently thinks "values voters" didn't turn out because the GOP didn't deliver on social issues. Exit polls show otherwise, including in Ohio's governor's race, where 29% of voters attend church weekly. Of those voters, 55% voted for Strickland and 42% voted for Blackwell. Of those voters who said they are "protestant", 57% voted for Strickland and 41% voted for Blackwell. Is that the best Dobson can come up with? Church-goers didn't vote for Blackwell because he was 'too liberal' on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage? James Dobson himself endorsed Ken Blackwell.

Dobson also criticized other conservatives, including former Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas — an architect of the 1994 GOP House takeover — for complaining recently that the religious right was "too involved" with the party.

"Without the support of that specific constituency, John Kerry would be president and the Republicans would have fallen into a black hole in '04," Dobson said. "In fact, that is where they are headed if they continue to abandon their pro-moral, pro-family and pro-life base. The big tent will turn into a three-ring circus."

DeWine too liberal, says Burress

Phil Burress tells Agape Press that DeWine lost because he wasn't extreme enough:

Phil Burress of the Citizens for Community Values Action Political Action Committee (CCV Action PAC) says DeWine's defeat was somewhat understandable. That is because, outside of being pro-life, the defeated senator did not support many key pro-family issues, the Ohio activist observes.

But as bad as DeWine's record was, Sherrod Brown will be much worse, Burress contends. He says there is no question that things will be "quite a bit more serious with Sherrod Brown going up there for six years."

One horseman's parting shot

Blackwell in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

"If you think we're going to ride off into the sunset, forget it," he said. "We are committed to the long haul."

The four horseman turned back?

In its November 7 press release Equality Ohio suggests this election was also a referendum on Ohio's four most powerful extreme religious leaders: Russell Johnson, Rod Parsley, Phil Burress, and Ken Blackwell:

“Voters sent extremists like Rod Parsley, Phil Burress, Russell Johnson, and similar groups across the country a strong message yesterday,” said Lynne Bowman, Executive Director of Equality Ohio. “The citizens of Ohio and America rejected their influence and voted instead for a unifying message of hope and progress.”

In 2004 the group Citizens for Community Values led the campaign to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Televangelist Rod Parsley, Ohio Restoration Project Chair Russell Johnson, and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell all played key roles in that campaign which polarized candidates and divided voters. Similar groups used the same playbook to pass ballot measures that hurt American families in several other states. On the heels of their 2004 successes, extremist groups promised to continue to push their agenda by supporting specific candidates and hate-based ballot measures.

And in a November 8 email from Lynne Bowman to Equality Ohio's email list, a very important point is made (emphasis added):

To the tune of 2.3 million votes for Ted Strickland, our fellow Ohioans told religious extremists like Rod Parsley, Phil Burress, Russell Johnson ‘no thanks’ and voted instead for a unifying message of hope and progress. In 2004, two million Ohioans were with us and voted against the ban on same-sex marriage. Yesterday, Ken Blackwell received just 1.4 million votes. It is a message we can take to heart: more Ohioans support equality than the hateful agenda of Blackwell and his allies.

R.I.P. "The God Gap"

From the Op-Ed by Amy Sullivan "Catholics and Evangelicals are Now Voting for Democrats" from the Pew Institute via The New Republic:

It's finally time to retire that tiresome, inaccurate phrase "the God Gap," so beloved by pollsters and commentators after the 2004 election. Coined to reflect the fact that weekly churchgoing Americans split their votes 58 to 41 percent for George W. Bush that year, the label ignored the fact that a supermajority of Democratic voters attend church as well. And, more importantly, it implied that the loyalty of religious Americans was securely with the Republican Party, not to be wrested away by heathen Democrats.

taking 'moral' back

A story in the Chicago Tribune titled "Evangelicals no longer lock for the GOP: Moderates, liberals redefine `values' vote" focuses on the waning power of extreme evangelicals and says for proof, look no further than Ohio:

LANCASTER, Ohio -- In the world of safe bets, oddsmakers could count on white evangelical Christians to vote Republican, three out of four times, because those voters and the GOP shared the same values.

In this midterm election, however, the one-sided nature of that relationship may be changing and along with it the very definition of values.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Ohio. ...

1 million voter guides sent by evangelicals in Ohio

The Wall Street Journal printed this article about Phil Burress and the big get out the vote (GOTV) push by evangelicals happening right now. I have copied and pasted the entire article here because the WSJ requires a login:

Evangelicals Fire Up the Faithful
Even Those Disappointed With Republicans Seek To Turn Out the Vote
By JACKIE CALMES
October 28, 2006; Page A1
SHARONVILLE, Ohio -- If Republicans still have an ace up their sleeve in this fall campaign, it's people like Phil Burress.

Mr. Burress, a thrice-married, self-described former pornography addict, is president of Citizens for Community Values, a statewide network of politically active Christian conservatives. His work here in 2004 helped turn out evangelical voters who put President Bush over the top in Ohio -- the state that made the difference between victory and defeat.

This time around, Mr. Burress isn't nearly so happy with the president and his party. In fact, he can hardly say enough about how fed up he is with Republicans from Columbus to Washington for not following through on promised social initiatives. He is especially exercised about Ohio's Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, who incensed conservatives last year by helping to broker a compromise with Democrats over confirming the president's judicial nominees.

So what is his advice to others? Hold your nose and vote. And that includes voting for Mr. DeWine, whose fate could determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate.

That attitude represents an important firewall for the Republican Party at a time when most polls and independent analysts forecast big midterm election losses Nov. 7, threatening the party's majorities in Congress, the governorships and some state legislatures. Republicans worry that religious conservatives, so critical to Republicans' wins of recent years, will stay home this time.

But a look at the movement in Ohio suggests otherwise. The turnout machine that has pulled evangelical conservatives to the polls in massive numbers is churning away, and for a reason little appreciated outside their circles: the sense that voting is their Christian duty. Ron Martin, pastor of Cincinnati's Central Parkway Ministries just south of here, is typical when he tells his church members, worn Bible in hand, "You have a moral obligation to vote." And because such voters' litmus-test issues are abortion and gay marriage, that typically means vote Republican.

Earlier this month, Mr. Burress's organization sent a million voter guides to 7,500 churches statewide for distribution in Sunday bulletins. The guide refers voters to the group's election Web site, where they can type their zip code and see all candidates who will be on their ballots, alongside each candidate's stance on abortion, marriage, pornography and other social issues. Those guides are based on candidates' responses to a questionnaire. Many Democrats, and moderate Republicans, didn't respond; the site notes that.

The 64-year-old Mr. Burress is an essential player in the Bush-era Republican Party's vaunted get-out-the-vote machine. In 2004, he led the drive to put on the Ohio ballot a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions. Then he put his organization, based in this conservative Cincinnati suburb, to work registering tens of thousands of new voters to support the amendment.

Those voters turned out and, by and large, also cast ballots for President Bush. On election night, as the battle between Mr. Bush and Sen. John Kerry swung back and forth, Ohio emerged as the state that would decide the outcome. By morning, it had gone Mr. Bush's way -- tipped by a wave of Christian conservative voters larger than expected. Bush strategist Karl Rove calls him one of the party's "spark plugs."

Now, late in this year's campaigns, a new controversy over gay marriage is energizing conservative Christian voters. New Jersey's Supreme Court, in a closely watched case, on Wednesday declared the state has to give same-sex couples the same rights and benefits as those granted to married heterosexuals. Within an hour of the news, the ruling set off a series of conference calls among Christian conservative leaders, including Mr. Burress.

"In the Christian conservative movement, it's created a shock wave," says Harry Jackson Jr., a Pentecostal bishop in Lanham, Md. He, like Mr. Burress, is a board member of the Arlington Group, a national network of conservative religious leaders. "This is probably the best possible thing that could have happened to the moral values movement two weeks before the election," he says.

Mr. Burress absorbs all this from behind his desk 500 miles from Washington, D.C. Like others on the religious right, Mr. Burress has had his faith in Republicans shaken by scandals and unfulfilled promises to push harder for a federal amendment against same-sex marriage. And that was before the recent shock over Florida Rep. Mark Foley's improper email messages to young male pages in the House, and reports that Republican leaders failed to heed warnings about them. Then came a book from a former White House aide, alleging that administration officials call evangelicals "nuts" and, with the president's acquiescence, stymie faith-based social initiatives he has long publicly espoused. The White House disputes those claims.

Yet Mr. Burress gets excited when talk turns to his get-out-the-vote efforts. He recently got a call from Pastor Martin, who operates ministries for the poor and homeless in central Cincinnati. The pastor was so vexed at Sen. DeWine that he confessed he might vote for the Democrat, Rep. Sherrod Brown.

"You're not going to vote against DeWine, are you?" Mr. Burress protested. "Let me tell you about Sherrod Brown!" He went on to dismiss the Democrat as a pro-abortion, pro-gay-marriage liberal. And he pointed out that re-electing Mr. DeWine is crucial to keeping a Republican-majority Senate to confirm the president's conservative court nominees. The pastor was converted.

Exit polls of 2004 voters underscored the importance of Christian conservatives to Republicans. Nearly a quarter of all voters were white evangelical born-again Christians. Eight out of ten voted for Mr. Bush. The rest of the electorate went to Democrat John Kerry, 56% to 43%. In a nonpresidential election, turnout falls for all groups. But Mr. Rove predicts evangelicals' turnout "will be substantial," on par with the 2002 midterm when Republicans made gains.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Republican voters overall are less interested in the election than Democrats are. But it also shows conservative Republicans far more engaged than nonconservatives. Moderate Republicans have been more disillusioned by spiraling spending, scandals, the war and a sense that the party panders to religious conservatives on social issues.

Recently Mr. Burress traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., for a conference of nearly 2,000 of the country's leading social conservatives. Attendees were upbeat, he says, galvanized by the stakes in the election. With Bush appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court, "the values voters understand that the next Supreme Court vote could be the one to outlaw abortion," he says.

James Dobson, one of Christian conservatives' foremost national leaders, has held rallies in several cities this fall. In St. Paul, Minn., just after the Foley news broke, he said it made for "a hard day" and he remained "very irritated and disappointed with the Republican Party" for failing to deliver on conservatives' issues. But he urged 2,000-plus listeners, "If you can find a politician who understands the institution of the family...it would be a sin not to vote for him."

His group, Focus on the Family, and another, the Family Research Council, recently released a "Vote Scorecard" for Congress, rating members based on their stances on abortion, judicial nominations, gay marriage and stem-cell research. Every embattled Senate Republican save one -- Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- is given a perfect score. So are many at-risk House Republicans.

Paul Weyrich, who founded the Christian conservative movement with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, says he recently had a conference call with Christian conservatives from Pennsylvania to rally support for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. He says evangelicals there "are highly motivated for Santorum. Polls showing him way behind don't bother them."

Like evangelicals elsewhere, those in Pennsylvania are circulating voter guides, working phone banks and going door-to-door. The Santorum campaign sends regular emails to evangelical voters, with video links. While it may not be enough to save the senator, given his unpopularity with independents and moderate Republicans, party leaders say a healthy turnout of evangelicals could make the difference for several House members.

In Tennessee, by contrast, Christian conservatives are cool to Republican Senate nominee Bob Corker, skeptical of his claims to oppose abortion rights. Tennessee Right to Life declined to endorse him, even though Democrat Harold Ford favors abortion rights. Yet the antiabortion group's leader said in a statement, "We'll be very busy on other races."

What will bring many out in Tennessee and seven other states are amendments to ban same-sex marriage. In 2004, similar proposals in 11 states proved a magnet for evangelical voters.

In Missouri, Christian conservatives are mobilized against a proposal favoring stem-cell research. Republicans are banking on these conservatives to also vote for embattled Sen. Jim Talent. He had alienated them by vacillating on the issue. Party leaders are rallying evangelicals with pleas to defeat the pro-abortion rights Democrat, Claire McCaskill, and keep the Senate in Republicans' control.

Here in Ohio, a pro-gambling initiative will draw evangelicals hoping to kill it. They are also excited about Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. In 2004, he was the only Republican leader to support Ohio's successful amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The alliance of religious conservatives and Republicans has come under strain in Ohio. Scandals have touched a number of officials including Republican Gov. Bob Taft. Congress's Jack Abramoff influence-peddling case recently claimed Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney, who pled guilty to corruption charges.

"This is what we worked for, to have this?" asks Mr. Burress.

He has other complaints. In Columbus, the Republican-led state Senate gutted a bill his group supported to restrict strip clubs, he says, while in Washington the president works hard on economic conservatives' priorities -- overhauling Social Security and cutting taxes -- but hardly at all against same-sex marriage. For that, Mr. Burress and other conservatives blame Mr. Rove, the president's strategist.

Tensions flared in a conference call several months ago between Christian conservative leaders and Mr. Rove. According to participants, Mr. Rove argued the marriage amendments weren't decisive in Mr. Bush's re-election. Provoked, Mr. Burress approached the speaker phone.

"Mr. Rove, this is Phil Burress. Are you trying to tell me that the president would have won Ohio if the marriage amendment had not been on the ballot?" Bishop Jackson, who is African-American, similarly upbraided Mr. Rove: "Sir, I am part of this group because I grew weary of the Democratic Party taking blacks for granted."

In an interview, Mr. Rove says his point was that Christian conservatives in all states -- not just those with marriage initiatives -- came out in greater numbers in 2004 than in 2000. That reflected general outrage about a Massachusetts court decision favoring same-sex marriage, he says, and conservatives' sense the president is on their side.

Next to Mr. Rove, only Mr. DeWine comes in for harsher criticism from Mr. Burress. "Sen. DeWine has been wrong on so many of the family issues," he says, dropping a two-inch-thick binder of research.

But then Mr. Burress says that Mr. DeWine, father of eight, is "a great family man, a pro-lifer to the bone. That's why we keep him." And with that, he is back again to the forces that keep him and other Christian conservatives politically active -- and voting Republican.

Dobson.... again.

As reported by the Denver Post James Dobson called on his 1.5 million listeners to get out and vote during his Tuesday radio address. I found this sentence in the article to be particularly poignant:

Dobson has called out Republicans for failing to make progress on social issues that put their party in control. But with the election a week away, Dobson reined in his criticism Tuesday.

You can listen to Dobson's October 31 radio address here.