A few weeks ago, John McCain met with the Rev. Billy Graham in what was widely seen as an effort to step up his outreach to religious people. And little wonder: The conventional wisdom has decreed that the senator, who is generally reticent about his own faith, needs to do something drastic to shore up his appeal among religious voters. But it is not only Republicans who feel the need to court the “value voter” bloc. Ever since John Kerry’s loss in 2004, the Democratic Party has been trying to “broaden the agenda” of religious folks, pushing global warming, Iraq withdrawal and income inequality as issues of “faith.” To push such matters, Howard Dean, the man who left his own church over a bike path, started the Faith in Action initiative at the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n
Has it worked? Are religious voters feeling the stirrings of a new, leftward-leaning faith agenda? Not really, according to a recent study out from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “The connection between religious intensity and political attitudes appears to be especially strong when it comes to issues such as abortion and homosexuality,” the researchers report. Almost three-quarters of the evangelicals who attend church weekly — the majority of evangelicals and the religious group that is most responsible for Mr. Bush’s victories — believe abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. An even higher percentage say that homosexuality should be discouraged by society as a way of life.<\/p>\n
Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention is not surprised. Evangelicals, he says, are not about to “exchange global warming for the sanctity of life or traditional marriage.”<\/p>\n