Pentecostals Emerging? Evangelicals Considering Obama?
William McKenzie of the Dallas Morning News suggests Pentecostals might be an important demographic group this fall — particularly Hispanic Evangelicals, a very interesting conservative-religious segment:
What does all this mean for the fall election?
John McCain has the edge among Pentecostals, but this is not a done deal.
Mr. McCain’s strategists would be smart to emphasize to Pentecostals his belief in conservative social values and his dedication to finding a better set of immigration laws. The values part would reassure Pentecostals that he won’t unravel the social order. And his devotion to fairer immigration laws will show he’s not one of those Republicans who is out to demonize immigrants, some of whom worship in Pentecostal iglesias in cities like Dallas, Los Angeles and Chicago.
As far as Barack Obama goes, he could play to the younger Pentecostals who have an interest in a fairer economy. And there are black Pentecostals he could win over in large cities.
Read the whole thing.
Elsewhere, this Religion News Service writer wonders if Evangelicals will turn to Barack Obama, who’d love to see them do that. The article is not persuasive or even informative, because it’s simply a collection of “man/woman in the street” interviews. Besides, I see no reason why Evangelicals won’t vote their political beliefs first. Those who tend to have conservative political views will overwhelmingly vote for McCain; those who are more liberal (a minority within Evangelicalism, I believe) will vote for Obama.
Sigh. Simplistic stories about religious voters seem to be favorites f0r lazy reporters.
Finally, on the political side of the fence, John, e-mailing from Rome, notes this story about a Romney becoming McCain’s Michigan campaign chair. It’s Scott, Mitt’s brother. Hmmm . . . .
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One Response to “Pentecostals Emerging? Evangelicals Considering Obama?”
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CarlH on 17 Jul 2008 at 3:58 pm #
The Evangelical Question (”Will Evangelicals vote for Obama?” or it’s slightly-less-than-full-of-hot-air alternative, “Will Evangelicals leave McCain/the Republicans in the lurch?”) seems to have replaced The Mormon Question for a whole host of MSM types, who simply can’t find a reason to write about anything other than identity politics this year! There are, from my view, a couple of different plausible reasons for this.
The part of me that is at least up to my knees (but not my neck, at least I think) in the right-wing fever swamp sees this as a lot of wishful thinking on the part of people who see the demise of the Republican party as the re(?)-dawning of an Age of Aquarius never fully realized by the 60s crowd (who really do seem to be reliving their childhood–or at least young adulthood–by hating Bush and vowing to relive Chicago 1968 in Denver 2008) because they finally realized they had to go to work–many of whom ended up in journalism, academe, and the law. (Why couldn’t they all just buy a red sports car for their mid-life crises?)
A more cynical part of me (and my wife would say that’s a pretty big chunk) sees this as some kind of service they can do for the Evangelicals by giving Evangelicals “cover” for deciding not to vote for McCain/Republicans, or at least to stay home (thereby helping advance the agenda referred to above).
The perhaps-more-rationale part of me agrees with Lowell, that such vacuous approaches to religious people and their voting patterns, is due to laziness. From the beginning (oh, so long ago now it seems), the story line has been identity politics–a Mormon, a black, a woman . . . Why should one have to change an approach that’s worked so well for so long?
“Reporting” sheer speculation (especially about one of the great “buggaboos” of the left since at least 2000) certainly avoids any in-depth analysis of religion, religious people, and/or why their values infuse their political participation and whether those values matter. More fundamentally, however, writing such drivel keeps their minds off the fact that they refuse to approach any of the real issues facing America today and whether the nostrums proposed by either of the candidates (assuming there are even nostrums–the send up of the Obama campaign rhetoric in the latest Jib Jab election satire “Time for Some Campaignin’” being particularly apt here) are viable approaches to dealing with (let alone solving) those problems.