Democrats and religion: not so scary after all

“We want a level playing field with a fair conversation,” said Burns Strider concerning the recent organization of the Democrats as a party that will be able to use their faith and religion like the Republicans have over the past twenty years. The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly held a discussion about the role of religion in the 2008 election season and how it has differed from previous elections. Strider, a member of the panel, was the Director of Faith Outreach for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and has watched the Republicans lose their former comfortableness in speaking about their faith publicly. Now the Democrats have organized positions such as his, to help religion become a more talked about and present topic on the minds of candidates.

Julian Zelizer, another member of the panel, is a professor of history and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School. Zelizer said that the “crisis of the Bush presidency has been equivalent to a crisis for religious groups.” He also compared the current shift of political strength from conservatives to liberals to Reagan’s usurpation of the religious discussion, only in reverse. Both men believed that the evangelical base is a cultural one and has thus been divided by this election. Also, unlike the usual dependence of values voters to support the conservative vote, the economy has taken center-stage as the issue at hand, and many people, conservatives and liberals, are voting Democratic.

Despite the ease that the Democrats have found, particularly Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama, when speaking about their faith, many evangelical Christians are still voting for Sen. McCain because issues like abortion and same-sex marriage are considered deal breakers.