Getting It All Wrong

A Christian cannot vote Democratic. That is unheard of. I hope that just sounded strange to you. Jim Wallis, on God’s Politics, recently posted “Getting the Evangelicals Wrong-Again.” He points out that the upcoming primary in South Carolina will be critical for both parties because South Carolina is full of Evangelicals. Yet, the media doesn’t quite know what that means because in the exit polls for Iowa and New Hampshire asked only the Republicans whether they considered themselves evangelical, but the Democrats did not receive the same question, assuming that all evangelicals were Republican. The Democratic candidates have reached out to faith-based communities as well. The media portrays evangelicals as only concerned with gay rights and abortion issues, yet, especially this younger generation of evangelicals, is deeply concerned about poverty, the environment, human rights, and the foreign policy regarding war. Because the Democratic Party is the one speaking about these issues, more evangelicals are considering Democratic candidates.

I see this occurring at Calvin. Being a Christian college, one would assume that the majority of the students would be Republican. Yet, just as what Wallis points out, many students are turning to Democratic leaders because they speak out about human rights issues and the environment. Think about the booths set up in Johnnys and how many of them have to do with poverty, war, the environment, or other things of the like. Maybe the problem is not that the Republican Party does not have quality candidates, but maybe it is that they are not addressing what the Evangelicals want to hear.