Post by Seany-D on Nov 7, 2004 13:23:04 GMT -5
from the Sun -- SED
Voters elect to take stand on faith
Christians: In Ohio, the delicate mix of religion and politics help clinch re-election for the president.
By Matthew Dolan and Frank Langfitt
Sun National Staff
Originally published November 7, 2004
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - Weeks before the presidential election, the pastor of the Bonita Drive Church of Christ and members of his flock shared a tense conversation.
The Rev. James Kinser was increasingly concerned about a couple in his congregation. The husband was a union member, and he and his wife both supported Sen. John Kerry.
"We prayed on it," said Darlene Northern, 38, who works with Kinser as the children's ministry coordinator at the church. "We decided to show them all of the literature on abortion and gays and the candidates' positions. Later they told us they wouldn't vote for Kerry because he believed in killing babies."
Kinser, 65, remembers the encounter a little more diplomatically: "We assisted them to carry out their desires."
This kind of delicate but intense exchange on politics and morality took place in many church congregations in this county halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati in the days leading to the election. And, the result helped decide Ohio's 20 electoral votes - and thereby clinch re-election - for George W. Bush, who openly talks about how his conservative Christian beliefs animate his life.
Nationwide, 22 percent of voters said that moral values were the most important issue in their presidential decision, with nearly four in five of them choosing Bush, and Ohio voters did much of the same.
Here in the southwestern part of the state, support for the president appeared to be closely tied to the regard voters had for him as a "man of faith" and the passion they felt about several social issues. Most notable was a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, listed on the ballot as Issue No. 1.
Voters turning out in support of that measure, which was approved with 62 percent of the vote, "probably did have an impact," acknowledged Bush's national campaign manager, Ken Mehlman. But he also credited "the president's leadership" on a variety of issues, such as terrorism, and the Republican "ground game" - a remarkable organized push by party volunteers to meet and persuade voters through mailings, phone calls and some of Bush's best-attended campaign appearances.
In September, Bush held a rally in nearby West Chester, drawing what his campaign said was his largest crowd up to that point, about 50,000, according to local police.
A personal campaign
This highly personal brand of campaigning - veteran to veteran, PTA member to PTA member, congregant to congregant - offset intensive Democratic get-out-the vote efforts and dispelled the prevailing myth that large turnouts favor Democrats.
Butler County gave the president his largest margin of victory in any county in the state with 52,000 votes, helping Bush offset Kerry's huge margins in urban areas. The president won the state by 136,000 votes out of some 5.5 million cast. Republican turnout here was 23 percent higher than it was in 2000 and 5 percent higher than the state average. Sixty-eight percent of the voters here approved the amendment, six points higher than the state average.
Butler County "was absolutely critical" to Bush's victory, said Herb Asher, a political science professor at Ohio State University.
Political analysts and voters interviewed here are cautious about attributing too much impact to Issue No. 1, and not all of the voters for the amendment supported Bush.
"My union endorsed Bush, but I'm my own man," said V.J. Thomas, 51, a steelworker and Masonic leader at the predominantly black Tried Stone Lodge No. 83 in Middletown. He voted for the marriage amendment and Kerry, as did many in the black community, who make up 13 percent of Middletown's population of 51,000.
While Republicans substantially boosted their turnout in the county, so did Democrats, by roughly 17 percent. Thomas and others at the lodge said black churches and other community groups brought many voters to the polls. Local Democratic leaders point out that Bush's percentage margin of victory in Butler County was virtually unchanged over the 2000 election.
However, the Democrats were swept away by a Republican tide in the county. Peter Mengel, who served as church coordinator for the Bush-Cheney campaign in the county, has worked in local politics here since Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964. In a place where church steeples define the landscape and the Solid Rock Church in Monroe features a 40-foot-tall bust of Christ with outstretched arms, he said he has never seen church members so politically engaged.
"What I noticed was there were many people involved who had never been organizational Republicans," he said.
It was not always easy to distinguish between church efforts to pass Issue No. 1 and the Bush campaign. To some extent, Mengel said, they merged.
The Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, an organization that propelled the gay marriage amendment onto the ballot, pushed the issue intensely in the final days.
Statewide, the organization sent out 2.5 million fliers to be inserted into the service bulletins of 17,000 churches the Sunday before Election Day. In Butler County, parishioners from at least 50 core churches registered new voters, with some participating in volunteer phone banks and distributing campaign literature door-to-door.
"My wife and I signed up people who believed in traditional marriage to get the amendment on the ballot," said Andy Cromer, 41, a financial manager who took his wife and three children out Friday night to the new Christian Dinner Theater in Middletown, which was featuring a Christian inspirational singer.
Opening marriage to homosexuals, Cromer said, would lead to rising health care costs because those couples would be eligible for increased benefits from employers. And, he worried about the effect on schools.
"I don't want some teacher in health class teaching my kids and saying, 'Here's a man and here's a man, and here's what they can do sexually,'" Cromer said.
For Melody Morris, the morning co-host on one of the region's leading Christian-based radio channel WFCJ 93.7, the overwhelming tide of conservative voters for Bush arrived with little surprise.
Morris sensed that her listeners were fully energized over moral issues and the campaign when they e-mailed her to complain that she had let a day or two go by without mentioning the proposed amendment.
"A large number of people who said they had never voted before or who hadn't voted in years told me they weren't going to sit this one out," she said.
Mengel said a synergy developed between same-sex marriage opponents and anti-abortion activists.
Issue No. 1 "was the core and root element and it went from there to the efforts to elect the president, who is a person of faith," Mengel said. "It basically grew into a wider base."
The Rev. Chris Russell, senior pastor at The River Church in West Chester, said the two issues in combination outweighed any electoral concerns over the state's struggling economy or the lingering war in Iraq.
"I've heard people say 'Well, what about the war?'" said Russell, 38, who described his 400-member church as progressively interdenominational but committed to a strict reading of Scripture.
"But when it comes down to it, millions upon millions have died from abortion and only thousands have died in Iraq, as horrific as that's been," he said. "There's been beheadings in Iraq, yet there are beheadings taking place right inside a mother's womb."
While national attention last week focused on the role evangelicals played in helping Bush win, religious leaders in Ohio say the faith coalition that backed him and the amendment was much broader.
For instance, Bush beat Kerry among Catholics in Ohio by 11 percent, six points more than he beat Al Gore by four years ago.
"When I talked with folks, I focused more on the immoral character of John Kerry rather than how moral Bush is," said Jim Schlinkert, 65, a registered Republican who regularly lobbied his fellow parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in West Chester for votes.
The Rev. Harville Duncan, pastor of Church of the Nazarene in Hamilton, said moral values include opposition to gay marriage, abortion and sexual denigration, like those segments on Howard Stern's radio show when the shock jock asks women to disrobe.
Voters elect to take stand on faith
Christians: In Ohio, the delicate mix of religion and politics help clinch re-election for the president.
By Matthew Dolan and Frank Langfitt
Sun National Staff
Originally published November 7, 2004
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - Weeks before the presidential election, the pastor of the Bonita Drive Church of Christ and members of his flock shared a tense conversation.
The Rev. James Kinser was increasingly concerned about a couple in his congregation. The husband was a union member, and he and his wife both supported Sen. John Kerry.
"We prayed on it," said Darlene Northern, 38, who works with Kinser as the children's ministry coordinator at the church. "We decided to show them all of the literature on abortion and gays and the candidates' positions. Later they told us they wouldn't vote for Kerry because he believed in killing babies."
Kinser, 65, remembers the encounter a little more diplomatically: "We assisted them to carry out their desires."
This kind of delicate but intense exchange on politics and morality took place in many church congregations in this county halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati in the days leading to the election. And, the result helped decide Ohio's 20 electoral votes - and thereby clinch re-election - for George W. Bush, who openly talks about how his conservative Christian beliefs animate his life.
Nationwide, 22 percent of voters said that moral values were the most important issue in their presidential decision, with nearly four in five of them choosing Bush, and Ohio voters did much of the same.
Here in the southwestern part of the state, support for the president appeared to be closely tied to the regard voters had for him as a "man of faith" and the passion they felt about several social issues. Most notable was a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, listed on the ballot as Issue No. 1.
Voters turning out in support of that measure, which was approved with 62 percent of the vote, "probably did have an impact," acknowledged Bush's national campaign manager, Ken Mehlman. But he also credited "the president's leadership" on a variety of issues, such as terrorism, and the Republican "ground game" - a remarkable organized push by party volunteers to meet and persuade voters through mailings, phone calls and some of Bush's best-attended campaign appearances.
In September, Bush held a rally in nearby West Chester, drawing what his campaign said was his largest crowd up to that point, about 50,000, according to local police.
A personal campaign
This highly personal brand of campaigning - veteran to veteran, PTA member to PTA member, congregant to congregant - offset intensive Democratic get-out-the vote efforts and dispelled the prevailing myth that large turnouts favor Democrats.
Butler County gave the president his largest margin of victory in any county in the state with 52,000 votes, helping Bush offset Kerry's huge margins in urban areas. The president won the state by 136,000 votes out of some 5.5 million cast. Republican turnout here was 23 percent higher than it was in 2000 and 5 percent higher than the state average. Sixty-eight percent of the voters here approved the amendment, six points higher than the state average.
Butler County "was absolutely critical" to Bush's victory, said Herb Asher, a political science professor at Ohio State University.
Political analysts and voters interviewed here are cautious about attributing too much impact to Issue No. 1, and not all of the voters for the amendment supported Bush.
"My union endorsed Bush, but I'm my own man," said V.J. Thomas, 51, a steelworker and Masonic leader at the predominantly black Tried Stone Lodge No. 83 in Middletown. He voted for the marriage amendment and Kerry, as did many in the black community, who make up 13 percent of Middletown's population of 51,000.
While Republicans substantially boosted their turnout in the county, so did Democrats, by roughly 17 percent. Thomas and others at the lodge said black churches and other community groups brought many voters to the polls. Local Democratic leaders point out that Bush's percentage margin of victory in Butler County was virtually unchanged over the 2000 election.
However, the Democrats were swept away by a Republican tide in the county. Peter Mengel, who served as church coordinator for the Bush-Cheney campaign in the county, has worked in local politics here since Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964. In a place where church steeples define the landscape and the Solid Rock Church in Monroe features a 40-foot-tall bust of Christ with outstretched arms, he said he has never seen church members so politically engaged.
"What I noticed was there were many people involved who had never been organizational Republicans," he said.
It was not always easy to distinguish between church efforts to pass Issue No. 1 and the Bush campaign. To some extent, Mengel said, they merged.
The Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, an organization that propelled the gay marriage amendment onto the ballot, pushed the issue intensely in the final days.
Statewide, the organization sent out 2.5 million fliers to be inserted into the service bulletins of 17,000 churches the Sunday before Election Day. In Butler County, parishioners from at least 50 core churches registered new voters, with some participating in volunteer phone banks and distributing campaign literature door-to-door.
"My wife and I signed up people who believed in traditional marriage to get the amendment on the ballot," said Andy Cromer, 41, a financial manager who took his wife and three children out Friday night to the new Christian Dinner Theater in Middletown, which was featuring a Christian inspirational singer.
Opening marriage to homosexuals, Cromer said, would lead to rising health care costs because those couples would be eligible for increased benefits from employers. And, he worried about the effect on schools.
"I don't want some teacher in health class teaching my kids and saying, 'Here's a man and here's a man, and here's what they can do sexually,'" Cromer said.
For Melody Morris, the morning co-host on one of the region's leading Christian-based radio channel WFCJ 93.7, the overwhelming tide of conservative voters for Bush arrived with little surprise.
Morris sensed that her listeners were fully energized over moral issues and the campaign when they e-mailed her to complain that she had let a day or two go by without mentioning the proposed amendment.
"A large number of people who said they had never voted before or who hadn't voted in years told me they weren't going to sit this one out," she said.
Mengel said a synergy developed between same-sex marriage opponents and anti-abortion activists.
Issue No. 1 "was the core and root element and it went from there to the efforts to elect the president, who is a person of faith," Mengel said. "It basically grew into a wider base."
The Rev. Chris Russell, senior pastor at The River Church in West Chester, said the two issues in combination outweighed any electoral concerns over the state's struggling economy or the lingering war in Iraq.
"I've heard people say 'Well, what about the war?'" said Russell, 38, who described his 400-member church as progressively interdenominational but committed to a strict reading of Scripture.
"But when it comes down to it, millions upon millions have died from abortion and only thousands have died in Iraq, as horrific as that's been," he said. "There's been beheadings in Iraq, yet there are beheadings taking place right inside a mother's womb."
While national attention last week focused on the role evangelicals played in helping Bush win, religious leaders in Ohio say the faith coalition that backed him and the amendment was much broader.
For instance, Bush beat Kerry among Catholics in Ohio by 11 percent, six points more than he beat Al Gore by four years ago.
"When I talked with folks, I focused more on the immoral character of John Kerry rather than how moral Bush is," said Jim Schlinkert, 65, a registered Republican who regularly lobbied his fellow parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in West Chester for votes.
The Rev. Harville Duncan, pastor of Church of the Nazarene in Hamilton, said moral values include opposition to gay marriage, abortion and sexual denigration, like those segments on Howard Stern's radio show when the shock jock asks women to disrobe.