The Forum was Saturday evening and broadcast on MSNBC. There's been a fair amount of media commentary; here is a young Catholic priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, writing in his column at foxnews.com:
Fr. Jonathan Morris « FOX Forum « FOXNews.com
Before Saturday’s event, most analysts agreed the forum at Saddleback Church was the perfect venue for Obama to break into McCain’s considerable advantage among evangelical voters. He would be on their turf and could talk their language—beautifully, of course—and that would be enough.
How wrong they were.
They were wrong because most political pundits still don’t “get” regular church-going evangelicals. Or more precisely, because they don’t get the faith dynamics of fervent Christians of any denomination (weekly church attendees is a more consistent voting block than any denomination as a whole). They assume getting their votes is mostly about connecting with them through a common faith language. They assume because Obama talks the lingo of conversion and salvation (even from the pulpit at times), and because McCain has seemed uncomfortable sharing his faith experience, then Obama is very much like this voting block and should be able to get some of their votes.
The logical flaw here is the assumption that active Christians judge a candidate primarily by his religious talk. The recent American religious experience is full of scandal. The regular churchgoer is now rather unimpressed by words alone and is particularly attentive to behavior inconsistent with Biblical standards. Action, or in the case of politics, policy, is their best indication a politician can be trusted to govern wisely.
********
The lesson from Saturday’s forum is that when a politician’s political policy doesn’t match voters’ core religious teachings, the prettier the language the more stinky it is.
Comments