Some evangelical Christians reconsider their faith in the GOP

By MATTHAI CHAKKO KURUVILA
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Pastor Steve Madsen urged the 4,000 people worshipping at his Livermore, Calif., evangelical church on the Sunday before the election to be sure to vote.

Madsen said he didn't push any issues or candidates, just made clear that parishioners should fulfill their moral duty. But exhortations like this have been a boon to Republican candidates and ballot measures, largely because evangelicals support the party's stances against abortion and same-sex marriage.

Evangelicals showed broad support Tuesday for President Bush and candidates aligned with him, bucking the nationwide trend that cost the GOP the House and Senate. But Republican and evangelical leaders said how the GOP reshapes its moral stances may determine the strength of their ties in the future. Two national Republican leaders said this fall that the party needs to soften some of its ideological positions in order to broaden its base.

"Jesus wasn't a Republican or a Democrat," said Madsen, speaking in between services Sunday. "I think the church needs to transcend party lines. The church needs to say, 'The Bible is my platform.' "

For other evangelicals, living amid the San Francisco Bay Area's divergent politics means they must rely more on their faith for direction.

Evangelicals cut across a variety of Protestant denominations nationally. They believe in a literal reading of the Bible as the word of God, that Jesus is the son of God, and that believing in him and his teachings is the only path to eternal salvation. They actively share their faith with others.

Exit polls in 2004 revealed that 74 percent of white evangelicals voted for Republicans and 25 percent for Democrats. On Tuesday, Republicans received 70 percent of the white evangelical vote and Democrats got 28 percent, only a slight change.

White evangelicals accounted for roughly 24 percent of the electorate, about the same as their proportion of the population.

"A great deal had been written about the discouragement of white evangelicals and how they might not turn out," said John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "This important element of the Republican electoral base held firm. They showed up in large numbers and voted Republican."

It was with other Christians that Democrats made their largest gains. National exit polls showed that Democrats made inroads with weekly churchgoers, cutting the Republican advantage in this group from 18 percentage points in 2004 to 12 points on Tuesday. And Democrats won the Catholic vote, which they did not do in the last congressional election.

In part, this reflected the conservative leanings of some Democratic candidates such as Bob Casey, the Catholic, anti-abortion senator-elect from Pennsylvania. And Ohio's first Democratic governor in 16 years, Ted Strickland, is an ordained United Methodist minister who quoted biblical principles in his ads on Christian radio.

Many evangelicals believe these conservative Democrats' victories will help advance Christian conservative values.

"Social conservatives had a lot better night Tuesday than Republicans," said Richard Land, a top official in the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention, whose 16 million members make up the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

The shifting of Christian voters toward the Democratic Party prompted some Republican leaders to question the alignment of evangelicals and Republicans. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said that the GOP needs to become "a lot more progressive and a lot less ideological."

Evangelical leaders, however, said that by straying from core conservative values, the GOP is in danger of losing their votes _ as well as those of less conservative Christians who already have crossed over to side with Democrats.

(E-mail Matthai Chakko Kuruvila at mkuruvila(at)sfchronicle.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)