News Intelligence Analysis
Faithful voted on values
War, scandals and social justice all swayed religious voters,
observers say
Friday, November 10, 2006
Felix Hoover and Dennis M . Mahoney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
At Antioch Church in Cleveland on Saturday, ex-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina spoke in support of Ohio’s ballot issue to raise the minimum wage.
J . D . POOLEY FOR THE DISPATCH
Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Toledo was an October campaign stop for Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell.
On Sunday, Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown spoke during a campaign stop at Living Faith Apostolic Church on the North Side.
"We didn’t abandon a political party, but it certainly seems as though much
of the Republican Party abandoned us." THE REV. ROD PARSLEY World Harvest Church
Also appearing at Living Faith Apostolic Church Sunday was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland.
For Republicans, Tuesday’s election was a defeat of almost biblical proportions. But for conservative religious leaders like the Rev. Russell Johnson, who staunchly backed defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, there will be another day.
"We read the Bible and take it literally, and understand that there are crucifixions that do precede resurrections," said Johnson, pastor of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster and founder of the conservative Ohio Restoration Project.
While conservative Christians such as Johnson saw many of their candidates defeated, the religious community did enjoy success in helping to lead the passage of Issue 2, raising the state’s minimum wage, and defeat of Issue 3, which would have allowed slot machine gambling into the state.
But in races for elective office, religious influence was big, as people voted their values, said the Rev. Tim Ahrens, senior minister of First Congregational Church Downtown and a founder of We Believe Ohio, a liberal-leaning social- justice movement.
"No matter where people were on the theological spectrum, people voted their really major values, concern for the poor, economic justice, peace in Iraq; Iraq has really troubled this nation," he said.
Ahrens cited pre- and post-election polls that show the war was the moral issue that most influenced voters.
Johnson said conservative Christians did support Blackwell. He said the GOP candidate’s downfall was caused by unfair coverage by the news media and by moderate Republicans defecting to vote for Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate and an ordained United Methodist minister.
"Conservatives would have been loyal and faithful to the (GOP) moderate nominee,"’ he said. "If that had been Jim Petro, conservatives would have shown up."
John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and an expert on religion and politics, said preelection polls did indicate that moderate Republicans were jumping ship because they didn’t like Blackwell.
"Moderates are always more willing to abandon their party if it doesn’t suit them," he said. "Whereas people who are more conservative, or more liberal for that matter, tend to stick with the party."
Green said Blackwell and other Republicans had to overcome the war, the unpopularity of GOP Gov. Bob Taft and scandals both in the state and nationally.
He said some voters might have been turned off by Blackwell’s constant references to his faith and preferred Strickland’s more low-key style on the issue. He also said Blackwell is known for focusing on abortion and same-sex marriage, neither of which was a big issue this year.
He said it’s possible, but not likely, that religious conservatives might stay discouraged enough to be less involved in upcoming elections.
"I suspect that they will be involved in the future because these religious conservatives tend to prosper in opposition. They do well when they’re opposed to things," Green said.
Another leading evangelical leader in central Ohio who strongly backed Blackwell, the Rev. Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest Church, said his church’s main focus was on Issue 3. Its defeat was a win for values voters, he said in an e-mail to The Dispatch.
Parsley accused the GOP of turning on values voters.
"We didn’t abandon a political party, but it certainly seems as though much of the Republican Party abandoned us," he said. "We’ll be watching to see who stays true to their campaign rhetoric while in office and who proves to be faux candidates."
Eric McFadden, national field director for the social-justice organization Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, said the war and Ohio’s sagging economy brought a shift in the Roman Catholic vote in the state.
The National Election Pool exit polls, conducted by several major news organizations, found that the state’s Catholics turned to the Democrats this year, after giving President Bush a majority of their votes in 2004.
Adnan Mirza, executive director of the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that exit polls conducted by CAIR showed 90 percent of Muslims voting Democratic in the races for governor, the U.S. House and Senate, and Franklin County commissioner.
"I think you can almost say it was a mandate on issues that had been implemented by the Bush administration," he said.
Wiretapping, extradition and civilliberties concerns, such as profiling, have cast Muslims in this country in a negative light and have had "a major impact on our community," Mirza said.
"To see the first Muslim being elected to the House, especially against the personal attacks he had to face in this election, speaks volumes."
The Rev. John Edgar, pastor of the South Side’s Church for All People and the United Methodist Church’s antigambling leader in the state, said it was the faith community that led the way to beating Issue 3.
The effort, which was strongly helped by U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, brought together Christians from across the spectrum, as well as members of other faiths, such as Muslims, he said.
"Part of the reason that the faith community was able to have such a profound impact on the issue is that we ourselves were absolutely united," Edgar said.
Tom Smith, director of public policy for the Ohio Council of Churches, agreed that broad involvement by the religious community helped ensure success in defeating Issue 3 and getting Issue 2 passed. He would like to see more of that.
"I just think we all need to gather together more and put aside our differences and really talk openly about the issues that we can do something about," he said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints espouses political neutrality on candidates, but sometimes speaks out on issues. No such voice was raised on the issues that appeared on Tuesday’s ballots in Ohio, even though the church promotes healthful living.
Douglas Bennett, public affairs director for the Columbus South Stake, said he believes it was unnecessary for church leaders to speak out on the smoking and gambling issues because members know its antismoking, anti-gambling stances.
His reasoning as to why the church didn’t take a position on Issue 2 to raise the minimum wage is: "The teachings of Jesus require an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Both the employer and the employee eventually will answer to the Lord for their position on wages."
fhoover@dispatch.com
dmahoney@dispatch.com
Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch
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