Spiritual Politics
Dramatis Personae
By Mark Silk — February 19, 2008
As we head toward the March showdown of the Primary Elimination Tournament, perhaps we should consider the religious roles assumed by each of the Final Four. On the Republican side of the bracket, there’s underdog Mike Huckabee, struggling to evangelize the GOP with a new gospel of progressive conservatism–public works and help for the poor […]
Whence Evangelicals
By Mark Silk — February 18, 2008
A good piece by Dan Gilgoff in today’s USA Today on how evangelicals’ inability to get behind Mitt Romney saddled them with John McCain. Of particular interest are the remarks by Nancy French, founder of the Evangelicals for Mitt website. UPDATE: Jill Zuckman of the Chicago Tribune echoes the frustrations conservatives and Romneyites have with […]
Piling On
By Mark Silk — February 18, 2008
The Rothenberg Political Report’s Nathan Gonzales is unimpressed with the Faith in Public Life/the Center for American Progress Action Fund poll of Democratic-voting evangelicals in Missouri and Tennessee. Jim Wallis takes a pop.
Dems get Religion
By rvineis — February 17, 2008
Amy Sullivan writes for Time this week about the Democrats’ embrace of religion. Sullivan focuses on John Kerry’s blunders with faithful voters in 2004. For an in-depth look at the religious history and current efforts of Edwards, Obama and Clinton check out this Religion in the News article by Mark Silk.
What Makes Huckabee Run?
By Mark Silk — February 17, 2008
The Inevitability Express may not be hitting on all cylinders, but as the likelihood of halting it fades into oblivion, the question of why Mike Huckabee continues to stay in the race becomes ever more insistent. His decamping from the campaign trail to make a motivational speech on Grand Cayman suggests a certain lack of, […]
Preacher Barack
By Mark Silk — February 17, 2008
At the end of Eli Saslow’s fine piece on Democratic voters in Lima, Ohio in today’s Washington Post, there’s this from one woman on Barack Obama: I mean, don’t get me wrong. He’s all right. If he gets the nomination, well, we’re going to have to vote for him and get behind him because we’re […]
Whither the Catholic Swing Vote?
By richardwood — February 17, 2008
Jim Dwyer in the New York Times last week noted: Catholics, who make up about a quarter of the registered voters in the country, have backed the winner of the national popular vote for at least the last nine presidential elections, going back to 1972….No other large group has switched sides so often, or been […]
Sir Charles
By Mark Silk — February 16, 2008
Charles Barkley on “fake Christians” and how he plans to vote this year.
Going Dark on Religion
By Mark Silk — February 16, 2008
Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs has a useful web page that tracks the pronouncements of the various presidential candidates on matters religious–listed by date and subject. The entries consist largely of the candidates’ responses to questions by interviewers. Interestingly, there’s been nothing posted from any candidate since January 22, which […]
Evangelical Democrats Redux
By Mark Silk — February 15, 2008
Spurred by a call from the AP’s Rachel Zoll, I’ve been thinking a little more about how to determine whether white evangelicals are showing any signs of drifting toward the Democrats this year. Unfortunately, in this regard the post-election poll of evangelicals in Missouri and Tennessee sponsored by Faith in Public Life and the Center […]
God Gaps
By Mark Silk — February 14, 2008
Over the past few elections, I’ve been involved in focusing a lot of attention on differences in voting behavior based on frequency of worship attendance. The now notorious God Gap has to do with the tendency of frequent attenders regardless of religion to vote Republican, and for less frequent attenders to vote Democratic. In 2000, […]
GodTube
By rvineis — February 14, 2008
GodTube.com, a YouTube site for Christians that claims over 280,000 registered users, is conducting an informal presidential preference poll. It is no big surprise to see that Mike Huckabee garners 47% of votes, but it is interesting to see that Obama comes in 2nd place with 26%. This site is worthwhile to check out. With […]
An Evangelical Party?
By Mark Silk — February 14, 2008
The AP’s Eric Gorski had a story yesterday about how South Dakota conservative Christian activist Bob Fischer is trying to whomp up support for a third-party alternative for conservatives, now that John McCain is the presumptive designee of the Republican Party. This is the same guy who tried to do the same when it looked […]
The Catholic Vote
By Mark Silk — February 14, 2008
While the archbishop of San Antonio expresses dismay that St. Mary’s University would allow Hillary Clinton to hold a rally on campus, Barack Obama is retooling his message for blue-collar workers in heavily Catholic Wisconsin. Looking down the road to November, conservative legal scholar Douglas Kmiec is smitten, as a Catholic, with Obama over McCain. […]
Anti-Mormonism
By Mark Silk — February 13, 2008
Prior to Mitt Romney’s withdrawal, there were five exit polls in states with high percentages of evangelicals that asked how much a candidate’s religious beliefs mattered: Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Mike Huckabee won Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, and came in second to John McCain in Oklahoma and South Carolina. Romney came in […]
Mark Silk
Spiritual Politics
Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the college's Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. He is a Contributing Editor of the Religion News Service
