I know. I know. I can already see the emails coming my way from conservative Evangelicals. Hey, I’m just the messenger and the news is this: whether you like it or not or believe it or not, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are making inroads with Evangelicals. A New poll by Faith and Public Life documents the trend in the 2008 election. Read below on their finding about how Evangelicals see a friendlier Democratic party when it comes to religion.
Almost twice the number of white evangelicals who voted for Obama say he shares their values, is “friendly” to religion. Although only 21% of white evangelicals surveyed voted for Obama, nearly double that number say he is “friendly” to religion (39%) and shares their values (39%).
Obama significantly improves upon perceptions of Democratic Party’s “friendliness” to religion. Fifty-four percent of voters see Obama as friendly to religion, and a similar percentage see McCain as” friendly” to religion (58%)
While McCain’s numbers are similar to those Pew found in August 2008 for Republican Party “friendliness” to religion (52%), Obama’s numbers represents a 16-point improvement over his party’s numbers (38%) and a 5-point increase from Faith in Public Life’s pre-election findings among the general public (49%).
The link to the poll is here.
Full disclosure: Faith in Public Life is more of a moderate (some would say progressive) Evangelical group so you should know that. I don’t say that to discredit the findings. Absolutely not but I thought you should know what group is behind it. If Focus on the Family published a poll, I would do the same thing.
Having said all that, I don’t think there is any denying the fact that poll after poll continue to show how the Evangelical agenda is becoming broader than just abortion and marriage. That bodes well for the Democrats who have been trying to push a broader agenda for a long time now.
Part of the reason Evangelical Mike Huckabee felt resistance from Evangelical groups early on is because while he’s strong on abortion and marriage, he too believes Evangelicals need to engage just as much on other issues like climate change, fighting AIDS, poverty, etc.
Let’s face it. It’s in the best interest of moderate and progressive Evangelicals to bring in ardent pro-lifers on the abortion issue. That is the sticking point. How can they do it? This bill pushed by moderates to “reduce the number of abortions” hits on liberal ideas as it relates to contraception. Conservatives are very skeptical. Dialogue is desperately needed.