Compare and Contrast
The Prop 8 fight continues to get uglier and uglier and it probably remains the most important thing we can talk about on this blog right now, but we started doing religion and presidential politics and we still watch it closely. Whoever thought a presidential race as hard fought as this one is would look genteel compared to a ballot proposition in California, but here we are. Nonetheless the presidential remains vitally important and the role religion plays in it is important.
With that in mind compare these stories. From NPR a few weeks ago:
How McCain Shed Pariah Status Among Evangelicals
and this one from Politico just yesterday:
Evangelical voters cold to McCain
Not much middle ground between those two is there? So which is it? I’d say it depends on who you want to win, but NPR could hardly be expected to be pro-McCain. So what can we learn from this?
The Media Has No Understanding Of Religion
Good reporting on religions and religious matters from any mainstream outlet is simply impossible to find. Evangelical fight over what it means to be an Evangelical, and the press, limited by column space or airtime simply has no desire to figure out the who is who or help others keep it straight. Further the nuance required to do so is not something that lends itself to the understanding of the less that totally committed.
When you couple that to the fact that few reporters in any newsroom are committed Christians of any stripe AND add to that the average political proclivities in most newsrooms and you get a formula writing the story then looking for quotes and data to support it rather than examining the situation and reporting on what is found.
MORAL: When it comes to religious reporting, particularly political/religious reporting – don’t bother. Gratefully, the Internet gives us other places to go to find out what is really going on. Use it.
Evangelicals Were Never A Voting Bloc
The civil rights movement in this country delivered a demographic voting bloc the likes of which have never been seen in America. A nation build from diversity as ours is is designed specifically to create the kind of freedom where individuals vote their will and desire, not their ethnicity or affiliation. And yet, in African-Americans we have seen precisely that enthically-based voting bloc develop, though thankfully such is decresingly the case.
Nonetheless, such blocs make a really easy story to write, and so the press pushes to find and label them. Not to mention the fact that such blocs make things pretty easy for political consultants and powerbrokers too. There are constant forces to shape us into such blocs, and to make the blocs big.
When the history of this election is written, the primary will be discussed in terms of Evangelicals v Mormons. In fact, one small group of the press-labelled Evangelicals pitted themselves against Romney and it was enough to cost Romney the nomination, but it was far from generalities that will be written.
Virtually every ethnic or affiliation group in the country is far more diverse than the press, or the consultants, want us to believe. The true abomination in this is that those of us that bear teh lable but don;t fit the narrative end up lost in the swell of historical over-simplification.
MORAL: Stand up and be heard for yourself, avoid the labels.
FACT: Evangelicals Are Going To Vote For McCain in Large Numbers
The reasons will range from, “Well, he’s much better than the alternative” to “I flat out like the guy.” Some will be “cold” but they will vote for him. Some will love him, and they will vote for him. Some will vote for him out of party loyalty. Some will vote for him because they cannot think of anything better to do. Some will vote for him becasue they like a guy with white hair. The story will be impossible to tell in broad brushstrokes – impossible.
What matters is that the votes will be cast and John McCain, and Sarah Palin, will be elected. And the nation will be better off for it.
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