c. 2006 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

(UNDATED) In suburban Detroit, Roman Catholic activists are working a phone bank urging fellow Catholics to get out the vote. Meanwhile in Nashville, evangelical activists are rallying support for a ballot initiative against gay marriage.

Candidates across the political and theological spectrum are making unprecedented religious campaign appeals, all part of the multifaceted role religion is playing in this midterm election.

“You might say that candidates are using a stained-glass strategy across the board,” said Allen Hertzke, director of religious studies and professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma.

“In my 20 years of following the religious scene, I have never seen religion politicized as it has been this year in the congressional and gubernatorial races,” Hertzke told the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,” adding that he believes this will “set the stage for a highly politicized religious environment in 2008.”

According to a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, nearly 70 percent of all Americans _ and 60 percent of Democrats _ say liberals have gone too far in keeping religion out of government. But at the same time, almost half the public believes that conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country.

Political strategists are working hard to find a winning mix of religion and politics.

Democrats are shoring up their traditional black-church support and reaching out to Catholic, mainline Protestant and even evangelical communities.

“There’s a whole apparatus now developing around the Democratic Party that is attempting to frame issues in a way that has religious resonance,” Hertzke said. “And so I think the Democrats in fact have learned a lesson that you can’t ignore religion and you can’t cede that territory to the Republicans.”

The Democratic efforts have been putting pressure on the Republicans, who are trying to mobilize their religious conservative base while at the same time pulling in new voters. Georgetown University professor Clyde Wilcox said that challenge will only grow over the next two years.

“The difficulty with the Republican Party is that if you take a very strong Christian right set of positions on issues, that appeals to the base and helps you win primaries, but it can alienate moderate voters in the general election,” Wilcox said.

Experts wonder whether any presidential candidate in 2008 will be able to command the religious support that Bush received in the last two elections, particularly from evangelical Christians, who made up 40 percent of the Bush vote in 2004.

“He’s been working for almost 15 years courting that constituency in various ways,” said Shaun Casey, an ethicist and political observer at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.

“He exhibited great political skill in reaching out and unifying what had been a badly divided group of religious communities. I don’t see anybody on either side replicating that.”

Several Republican contenders are already trying, but they face tough challenges.

Earlier this year, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic, spoke to evangelical pastors about bringing people “to Jesus and bringing them to God.” But conservatives might have a hard time backing him for president because of his support for abortion rights and gay marriage.

Other possible GOP nominees _ notably Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, who is retiring from Congress, and Arizona Sen. John McCain _ have tense relations with religious conservatives. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has received a warm reception at recent pro-family rallies, but his Mormon faith may concern some Christian conservatives.

“For many evangelicals, Mormons are not true Christians,” Hertzke said. “Not only that, they really are viewed as people belonging to a cult. And that’s very strong language and it’s negative and pejorative language, but that’s how many evangelicals view Mormons.”

Whom would religious conservatives support?

“If you look at the leaders of the religious right, they’re going to be under tremendous pressure to pick a candidate early,” Casey said. “And yet, there’s absolutely no upside if you’re one of those leaders to pick somebody early, because if you pick wrong and lose, then you’re going to be on the outside looking in.”

Potential candidates are taking lessons from Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s reluctance to discuss religion during his 2004 presidential campaign. Recently, Kerry has begun talking more openly about his faith, perhaps, observers speculate, in preparation for another run at the Democratic nomination.

In recent months, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has begun quietly reaching out to faith-based groups, talking and writing about her United Methodist faith. And many believe Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill., could have broad religious appeal.

Experts expect a lot of God talk during the 2008 campaign, much of it autobiographical.

“I doubt you’re going to hear many people saying when they accept the nomination in summer 2008, `Jesus told me to do X,’ or, `God told me to do Y,”’ Casey said. “They’re going to be talking about how they grew up. They’re going to be talking about spiritual values that have shaped them or that they currently embrace.”

KRE/RB END LAWTON

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