Like most evangelical Christians, Alessandra Gonzalez tends to be conservative and Republican in her politics.
But for the 25-year-old and her peers, that means different things than it does for their elders.
For many conservative evangelical Christians younger than 30, family values mean more than the issues of gay marriage, abortion and prayer in school. Poverty, health care and the environment are also matters of faith.
“There’s an awareness to be more savvy and to say, ‘I can’t be completely captured and represented by someone like Jerry Falwell.’ I don’t think that flies anymore,” said Ms. Gonzalez, a graduate student at Baylor University. “Family really shapes your definition of values more than attending a political rally or being involved politically.”
Evangelical Protestants have been one of the most faithful Republican voting blocs in recent presidential elections, but there are abundant signs the movement is fracturing as the 2008 contest approaches. The younger generation in particular is less wedded to the GOP and to the moral-values agenda espoused by an influential corps of Christian conservative leaders.
“The fact that these younger evangelicals have somewhat more diverse views than their elders means there’s a possible change in their political behavior,” said John Green of the Pew Research Center, who has long studied how religion affects voting habits.
this is SO SO hopeful. Rather than a generation of evangelicals held captive to Nixon Southern strategy or a Rovian fantasy – rather than the manner in which historically churches of color have tended to be taken for granted by the Dems – it seems that a shift may be taking place.
Imagine what impact folks of faith can have when they believe that you really cannot rightly interpret the rest of the Bible without first understanding who Jesus is, what he did, and what he said.
Articles like this from the heart of the Bible Belt and speeches like this from Huckabee (http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709120089) or like this from Obama (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/obama-and-faith.html)
certainly help folks like me sense a change.
Bob is hopeful about the observation that
OK, but before we break out the really good sherry in celebration, perhaps we could ask the basic question about all discoveries like this: “Compared to what?” Were, for example, teenagers in the ’30s or ’80s less diverse in their views than their elders? I rather doubt it.
And this is a Good Thing. It’s how better ideas replace worse ideas, over generations. But life is a feedback mechanism: is there anyone over 40 here who has never reflected, “Gee. When I was younger I thought X. How dumb and naive I was back then…”? Reality and experience refine this diversity, sometimes brutally.
So OK, there is a shift in young people’s attitudes which we may either decry or praise. But in the long run the trend may be less radical than meets the eye.
Do they believe in dinosaurs yet?
Thanks Craig – one of the constant of t1:9 commenters (and many far right or far left fringe folks) is to point out how things are actually bad & getting worse.