Post by irenetheserene on Aug 8, 2004 13:12:56 GMT -6
Catholicism Plays New Role in Election - Experts
Posted on Saturday, July 03 @ 18:07:27 PDT by admin
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president of the United States, and he had to reassure voters that he would not let his religion rule his presidency.
Four decades later, another Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, wants to be the country's second Catholic president, and he faces fire for not being religious enough.
"It's a huge window into how things have changed since 1960," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington.
Simply put, in those 44 years the church has discovered the power of politics and politics has discovered the power of the church, experts say.
Now, as that dynamic has kicked into high gear and Kerry is poised to become the Democratic Party's candidate against President Bush in November's presidential election, Roman Catholics, who represent about a quarter of the U.S. electorate, are getting unprecedented attention.
Both major U.S. political parties have grown more organized, designed more sophisticated techniques and learned how to target churchgoers as voters, experts said.
"This year has the feel of a much more highly orchestrated campaign effort," said Rev. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, even when compared to the union of conservative evangelicals with the Republican Party under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
While that group tends to rally behind Republican candidates, the U.S. Catholic vote is up for grabs.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
Bush, a Methodist, paid a high profile visit to Pope John Paul II, while his re-election campaign has made a concerted pitch to hundreds of Catholic congregations in Pennsylvania, a swing state with a large Roman Catholic population.
"Certainly the early returns from this campaign season would indicate that religion and politics is going to be a powerful and controversial matter," Lynn said.
For their part, more churches are stepping into politics. A group of Catholic bishops has proposed denying communion to politicians like Kerry who are Catholic but do not oppose a woman's right to abortion.
"What you're seeing is less reluctance on the part of many church officials to speak out on political issues," said Larry Noble, director of Washington's Center for Responsive Politics. "Religion has become much more political and is used for much more political purposes."
Add to that the power of hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage that didn't exist in 1960 and have energized conservative and devoutly religious voters, experts say.
Those issues help fuel the so-called religion gap, in which more church-going voters lean Republicans and less church-going voters lean Democratic, said pollster Celinda Lake.
"The religion gap is bigger than any of the other gaps, bigger than the marriage gap, bigger than the gender gap," she said.
Catholics have this gap within their ranks and are starkly divided down political lines, with traditional conservatives on one end of the spectrum and social liberals on the other, said John Green, professor of politics and religion at the University of Akron in Ohio.
"Then there's this large group of Catholics in the middle, centrist, moderate Catholics," Green said. "A lot of the fight in the Catholic community right now is over the people in the middle."
The controversy over denying communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians such as Kerry is one such fight.
"The questions that have been raised about 'Is John Kerry a good enough Catholic?' are substantially and most effectively being raised by the traditional Catholics trying to bring a lot of the middle-of-the-road people over to the Bush camp," said Green.
"And the more liberal Catholics are of course arguing, 'No, he's a fine Catholic and people ought to vote for him because he is overall closer to Catholic teachings than President Bush."'
In 1960, Catholics voted overwhelmingly for Kennedy. Today, their votes are split down the middle, polls show.
"What you see now is a Catholic community that by and large is a swing vote between the parties," Lugo said.
"And we're talking about a lot of voters here."
© 2004 Reuters
www.reuters.com/ newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews &storyID=5567069
Posted on Saturday, July 03 @ 18:07:27 PDT by admin
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president of the United States, and he had to reassure voters that he would not let his religion rule his presidency.
Four decades later, another Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, wants to be the country's second Catholic president, and he faces fire for not being religious enough.
"It's a huge window into how things have changed since 1960," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington.
Simply put, in those 44 years the church has discovered the power of politics and politics has discovered the power of the church, experts say.
Now, as that dynamic has kicked into high gear and Kerry is poised to become the Democratic Party's candidate against President Bush in November's presidential election, Roman Catholics, who represent about a quarter of the U.S. electorate, are getting unprecedented attention.
Both major U.S. political parties have grown more organized, designed more sophisticated techniques and learned how to target churchgoers as voters, experts said.
"This year has the feel of a much more highly orchestrated campaign effort," said Rev. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, even when compared to the union of conservative evangelicals with the Republican Party under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
While that group tends to rally behind Republican candidates, the U.S. Catholic vote is up for grabs.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
Bush, a Methodist, paid a high profile visit to Pope John Paul II, while his re-election campaign has made a concerted pitch to hundreds of Catholic congregations in Pennsylvania, a swing state with a large Roman Catholic population.
"Certainly the early returns from this campaign season would indicate that religion and politics is going to be a powerful and controversial matter," Lynn said.
For their part, more churches are stepping into politics. A group of Catholic bishops has proposed denying communion to politicians like Kerry who are Catholic but do not oppose a woman's right to abortion.
"What you're seeing is less reluctance on the part of many church officials to speak out on political issues," said Larry Noble, director of Washington's Center for Responsive Politics. "Religion has become much more political and is used for much more political purposes."
Add to that the power of hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage that didn't exist in 1960 and have energized conservative and devoutly religious voters, experts say.
Those issues help fuel the so-called religion gap, in which more church-going voters lean Republicans and less church-going voters lean Democratic, said pollster Celinda Lake.
"The religion gap is bigger than any of the other gaps, bigger than the marriage gap, bigger than the gender gap," she said.
Catholics have this gap within their ranks and are starkly divided down political lines, with traditional conservatives on one end of the spectrum and social liberals on the other, said John Green, professor of politics and religion at the University of Akron in Ohio.
"Then there's this large group of Catholics in the middle, centrist, moderate Catholics," Green said. "A lot of the fight in the Catholic community right now is over the people in the middle."
The controversy over denying communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians such as Kerry is one such fight.
"The questions that have been raised about 'Is John Kerry a good enough Catholic?' are substantially and most effectively being raised by the traditional Catholics trying to bring a lot of the middle-of-the-road people over to the Bush camp," said Green.
"And the more liberal Catholics are of course arguing, 'No, he's a fine Catholic and people ought to vote for him because he is overall closer to Catholic teachings than President Bush."'
In 1960, Catholics voted overwhelmingly for Kennedy. Today, their votes are split down the middle, polls show.
"What you see now is a Catholic community that by and large is a swing vote between the parties," Lugo said.
"And we're talking about a lot of voters here."
© 2004 Reuters
www.reuters.com/ newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews &storyID=5567069
