wfn.org | UMNS# 605-'Value voting' changes political landscape for

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

'Value voting' changes political landscape for churches 

Dec. 21, 2004	 

NOTE: Related articles, UMNS stories #606-607, are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

By Tamie Ross

For millions of American voters, the 2004 presidential election wasn't
decided primarily on the state of the economy or the war on terror, but on a
combination of issues that fell under the general heading of "moral values."

Values were a driving force in getting many Christians to the polls - and
helping produce a record voter turnout for a U.S. presidential election. 

Churches, special-interest organizations and political parties appealed to
people of faith on an unprecedented scale, motivating many dormant or
first-time voters around issues such as abortion, stem-cell research and gay
marriage. Beyond the issues, many voters quoted in news reports said they
simply wanted to support a "godly" candidate.

The United Methodist Church had the denominational distinction of having
three of four of the candidates for the nation's highest offices among its
ranks: Republican President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards. 

Like those candidates, United Methodists spanned the political spectrum.
Regardless of their political parties, many of them based their votes on
values informed by their faith. In the weeks since the election, however,
analysts who were caught by surprise by the "values" factor have typecast the
Christian voter as a conservative aligned with an outspokenly Christian
president.

Where do most United Methodists stand? On both sides and in the middle, said
the Rev. Scot Ocke, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Marysville,
Ohio. "We are a very divided denomination theologically. Diverse values
motivated diverse voting." 

Those positions don't necessarily translate politically into right and left.

"I don't think you can divide America into conservative and liberal any
more," said Bishop Lindsey Davis, who leads the church's North Georgia Area.
"I think people have wide ranges of perspectives on many different issues."

Registering church members

The Rev. John Ed Mathison, senior minister at Frazer Memorial United
Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala., acknowledges that he's known as a
conservative voice in the church, but that doesn't mean he's vocally
conservative about political issues. Quite the contrary, he said. 

"I just want people, Christians, to be responsible citizens," Mathison told
United Methodist News Service. "I have a strong conviction that every church
member should be registered and should vote." 

Frazer conducted a strong voter-registration drive this year, Mathison said.
While he doesn't know how many new voters the church recruited, he said he
was proud of the work that his church and other faith-based and secular
groups did this year.

Mathison said he was surprised during the campaign when the war on terror and
economic policy consistently received more attention than other issues -
issues such as stem-cell research, abortion and gay marriage, which he knew
were important to many members of his church.

"I remember wondering how accurate these pollsters were," he said, laughing.
"Let's just say I didn't, and still don't, place a lot of faith on them."

Of those responding to exit questions after balloting on Nov. 2, a resounding
number, 64 percent, said they ranked "moral values" ahead of all other issues
when casting their ballots. In an August poll, 86 percent of the people who
ranked values first also supported President Bush. Terrorism ranked second in
that poll, commissioned by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Sexuality, social justice

In 11 states, those who went to the polls voted for a president, but they
also made a statement on a different kind of policy. Where constitutional
amendments defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman were on
the ballot, they were ratified by a large margin.

Mathison said that millions of American voters echoed the delegates to the
2004 General Conference on the subject of marriage. In May, the delegates
added a sentence to the denomination's Social Principles, reading: "We
support laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man
and one woman."

"I would assume that voters chose the candidate they felt best represented
them on every issue," Mathison said. "The United Methodist Church's stance
was very clear on a lot of issues at the last General Conference. That stance
was reflected in this election."

Some in the church wonder if sexuality issues superseded matters of social
justice. 

Bishop Ann Sherer of the Nebraska Annual Conference said talk of values and
voters that emphasizes Christianity concerns her.

"I worry that now we've almost made a limiting view of Christian values,"
Sherer said. While the debate about human sexuality is important, other
critical values shouldn't suffer as a result, she said. "All the issues that
we find discussed in the New Testament, from nonviolence to justice and
diversity and value for all persons, those are extremely important too."

What are values?

The outcome of the election provided a new label: "Values voters." Some say
the moniker represents a social and political return to old-fashioned morals.
Others wonder whose values are being represented.

Shocking to some may be hearing that morals and values are not the same, said
the Rev. Steve Ross, pastor of McMinnville (Ore.) United Methodist Church.
The difference is key to understanding why some voted this year as they did.

"Values are sort of basic assumptions about what's right and wrong," Ross
said. "Morals are the specific, acted-out, visible evidences of those
values."

For instance, he said, a value may be "life is sacred and should be
protected." A moral in this scenario might be "abortion should be against the
law and that those who have them should be prosecuted."

"It wasn't really clear until this election how this word (values) has been
captured by such a narrow range of issues," Ross said. "This election was a
wakeup call, and many people underestimated the breadth of this movement.

"A lot of people are insulted to hear publicly that they don't have values,
even as we talk about economic justice, personal freedoms and environmental
care," he said. He predicted a broader debate about values and morals in
future elections. "We'll still have the same issues as this year, but there
will be others."

Whether or not the values movement will be as strong in 2008 or how it will
affect local and state elections is difficult to say. On Nov. 25, abortion
opponents claimed legislative victory when a federal spending bill of $388
billion was passed with a clause that allowed hospitals to refuse to perform
abortions. 

In light of this bill and those to come, Davis hopes the talk - and resulting
action - will shift from "values" to "virtues."

"A lot of people have certain values, certain attitudes about issues," Davis
said, "but it doesn't really impact very much how they live their lives from
day to day. Virtues, from my perspective, are lived out on a daily basis.

"There are a lot of people who value honesty, but aren't very honest
themselves. For those who have honesty as a deep virtue in their lives, it
shows as they live it."

'Lens of faith'
 
Diversity is a national theme, but drawing out shared interests is key for
political campaigns to succeed in electing a candidate. 

James Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas and an expert on church-state issues, said Democrats and
Republicans are moving further apart, not closer together, on issues at the
core of the values debate. President Bush's campaign was most successful at
drawing attention to this area.

"There were stark differences between Bush and Kerry on abortion,
homosexuality, stem cell research and the whole role of faith in personal and
public life," Wilson said. "The gay marriage issue is one that can work
powerfully for Republicans and could be deadly for Democrats if they get on
the wrong side of it."

Republican strategist Karl Rove was the key figure credited with courting
faith-driven voters this year. Undoubtedly, experts say, both Democrats and
Republicans will make Christian voters a priority in 2008 and in other races
before then.

The Rev. Deanna Stickley-Miner, director of connectional mission and justice
for the denomination's West Ohio Annual (regional) Conference, warned against
thinking that partisanship has a place in the church's collective pew. Even
as values converge and diverge, she said, faith remains a constant force that
binds believers.

"(United) Methodists have always been values voters," she said. "But the
Methodists' understanding of morality is much broader than that presented in
the last campaign."

Stickley-Miner's work takes her to low-income neighborhoods, where she helps
feed hungry children. Her top priority is taking care of the hungry, the poor
and those who cannot fight for themselves. 

"We need to be able to expand our perception of morality to include social
justice," she said. "In the United Methodist Church, we have such a broad,
historical understanding of what it means to be moral people in the world. It
does include sexual morality, but it also includes the way we use our money,
our influence, the way we care for the environment."

Stickley-Miner said seeing life through a "lens of faith" enables her to
disengage from a political viewpoint and instead focus on the people
involved.

"We're getting ready to celebrate Christmas, the birth of the Prince of
Peace," she said. "What better time to address the growing interest, the
desire to say, 'Let's talk about issues from a place of faith, not politics.'
"

*Ross is a freelance journalist based in Dallas.

News media contact: Linda Green or Tim Tanton, (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

 

 

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

You may leave the list at any time by going to
http://umns.umc.org/unsubscribe.html