c. 2004 Religion News Service

Survey Suggests Iraq War Was Most Important `Moral’ Issue

(RNS) The war in Iraq was the most important “moral issue” for voters in last week’s election, according a national poll by progressive groups, far outpacing abortion and gay marriage as top-shelf concerns.

The poll, released Tuesday (Nov. 9) by a coalition of progressive faith groups, suggests that the 22 percent of voters who listed “moral values” as the most decisive factor in their votes may be concerned about more than hot-button social issues like gay marriage and abortion.

The “values voters” cited in exit polls overwhelmingly went for President Bush, and conservatives credited their efforts at mobilizing evangelical Christians to vote in Bush for a second term.

Forty-two percent of voters in the new poll listed the Iraq war as their top moral concern, followed by 13 percent who listed abortion and 9 percent who said gay marriage. The war led among both Catholics and “born-again” Christians, and more than half of Kerry voters.

“Values were important in this election, but whose values, which values and why these particular values and not other values are questions that are still in need of more attention,” said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance.

In other findings, one-third of voters listed “greed and materialism” as the most urgent moral problem in the country, followed immediately by poverty. Just 15 percent cited abortion, and 12 percent cited gay marriage.

On the broader question of the greatest “threats” to marriage, gay marriage rated third, outpaced by infidelity and rising financial burdens. Gay marriage scored higher among people who attend church more than once a week, Bush voters and born-again Christians.

The survey also found that half of voters _ including 56 percent of Catholics _ said attempts by some Catholic bishops to discourage Catholics from voting for Sen. John Kerry had no impact, and made Catholics more inclined to support Kerry over Bush, 25 percent to 19 percent. Across the board, voters said it would have made no difference if Kerry, a Catholic, had talked more openly about his faith.

Overall, just more than half of voters said a president’s policies should be informed by faith, but not imposed with faith. Barely one-third (31 percent) favored a strict separation of faith from policy, while only 13 percent think a president’s faith should determine policy.

“What we dare not do is have a shouting match of our values vs. their values, my values vs. your values,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, who reviewed the polling results.

The poll of more than 10,000 Americans was conducted by Zogby International in the week after the Nov. 2 elections. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Religion-Based Activists of Abortion Rights Dread Second Bush Term

WASHINGTON (RNS) Religion-based abortion rights activists predicted Tuesday (Nov. 9) that a Bush administration focused on what it considers moral values could seriously damage their cause.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, expressed concerns that the Bush re-election will lead to the appointment of justices who would overturn the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

“What we could see is what I call `theocracy lite,’ a system whereby our courts deny they are implementing the doctrines of ultra-conservative Christians groups as the law of the land, even as they do exactly that,” said Lynn, speaking at a news conference held by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a Washington-based group of national religious organizations that has supported abortion rights since 1973.

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, said that although Bush has said America is not ready to outlaw abortion, “he wants to create a climate where it could be.”

Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, objected to the notion that Bush and Republicans won because of an advantage on religion and values.

“Politics won the election, not religion,” said Veazey. “The leaders of the Religious Coalition are outraged at the underlying message of the election story _ that religious and morals are the exclusive property of social conservatives. We are all people of faith.”

_Wangui Njuguna

Panel: Democrats Shouldn’t Take Jewish Vote for Granted

NEW YORK (RNS) Jews have been seen as a reliable Democratic voting bloc for decades, especially since Bill Clinton solidified the vote in 1992.

While Sen. John Kerry took three-fourths of the Jewish vote on Election Day, speakers participating in a Monday (Nov. 8) panel discussion on Jews and American politics said Democrats shouldn’t take that vote for granted in the future.

“There’s a presumption that Jews vote Democratic, vote social issues,” said Thane Rosenbaum, who teaches human rights and legal humanities at Fordham University School of Law in New York City. “For the first time in many elections, I think that more Jews voted for economic interests.”

The discussion was held at the 92nd St. Y, a Jewish community and cultural center.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi and vice president of New York City’s National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, noted that Jews can vote Republican on topics other than Israel and that “it’s a big mistake to assume that’s not the case.”

With no central doctrinal authority as in Catholicism and few absolutist stances on social issues like gay marriage and abortion espoused by many evangelicals, Judaism offers a panoply of political options.

“It’s tricky when you talk about authentic Judaism,” said fellow panelist Pella Schafer, a board member of the New York-based Jewish Fund for Justice. “Who gets to decide that, who gets to say what it is? When I look at what to me seems just, I can also find elements of the Jewish tradition that may not support the same thing, for example rights for women.”

_ Bene Cipolla

Missouri Baptists Continue Legal Action Against Agencies

(RNS) Leaders of the Missouri Baptist Convention are continuing their efforts to legally control five agencies that rebelled against the organization.

Lawyers for the convention filed new legal action on Oct. 25, seeking to invalidate new charters of the five institutions that include changes that permit them to elect their own trustees, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

Those entities include Missouri Baptist University, the Missouri Baptist Foundation, a retirement center, a conference center and the former official weekly newspaper for Missouri Baptists, all of which no longer wanted the convention to continue to choose their trustees.

In March, a judge dismissed a 2002 lawsuit by convention officials against the agencies, saying the plaintiffs _ the convention’s executive board and six churches _ did not have legal standing. The new suit was filed by the convention and five individual messengers, or delegates, to its meetings.

The new legal action came on the first day of a three-day meeting of the convention in Raytown, Mo. A messenger from Imperial, Mo., made an unsuccessful motion to tell convention officials to drop legal actions against the agencies. That motion was defeated by a more than 2-to-1 margin, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Messengers also passed a resolution affirming the legal task force that has been working on the matter.

Bob Curtis, pastor of Ballwin Baptist Church in Ballwin, Mo., said it is time for the parties on both sides of the dispute to do all they can to get the case heard and decided.

“Let’s put this to rest and get on with kingdom work,” he said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: World Council of Churches General Secretary Samuel Kobia

(RNS) “I would say that poverty is the moral equivalent to weapons of mass destruction, given that poverty kills more humans than those weapons do.”

_ World Council of Churches General Secretary Samuel Kobia, during a Nov. 5 meeting with Brazilian Vice President Jose Alencar in Brasilia, Brazil.

MO/JM RNS END