LTTE printed! [View All]

[flamin lib]

Original is in my Journal--longer and more detailed. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/local2/15535074.htm

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The evangelical issue

According to research I've seen, 26 percent of voters identify themselves as evangelical Christians.

In 1987, 34 percent of evangelicals voted Republican. In 2004, 79 percent voted for George W. Bush. Polls say that 54 percent would vote for Bush today.

Why did so few evangelicals vote Republican prior to Bush? Why are the numbers declining from the high in 2004? What will be the direction of evangelicals for the future?

The answer is simple. The Democratic platform and message are closer to the core values of Christianity than those of the Republican Party.

In the 2000 election, Karl Rove used two issues -- gay marriage and abortion -- to motivate the religious right to proselytize Christian moderates and motivate them to vote for Dubya. After the election, those issues disappeared from the agenda.

In 2002, the same two issues became the rallying cry; again, they vanished after the election. In the 2004 elections, Christianity came under attack from gays seeking abortions, only to have the issues evaporate as soon as the inauguration was over.

As we approach the 2006 elections, gay rights, abortion and now flag-burning are again at the heart of Republican politics. The evangelicals, realizing that the Republicans will once again cut and run from their pre-election rhetoric, are beginning to look to the rest of their core Christian values.

Imagine for a moment that Jesus is a congressman. How would he vote on increasing the minimum wage? Universal healthcare? Tax cuts that benefit the top 2 percent and ignore the poorest among us? Lifting one in four children out of poverty?

Simply put, Republican performance doesn't measure up to Jesus' teachings. Paying lip service to opposing abortion and gay marriage and yet doing nothing about them, while showing a complete disregard for the rest of his teachings, shows these people for what they are: hypocrites.

Axxx Sxxxxx, Arlington