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Media Reports On Role of Religious Voters In Obama's Victory

By Howard M. Friedman

The media yesterday were filled with interesting articles on the role of religious voters in Barack Obama's election victory. The Wall Street Journal reported: "Mr. Obama won among Catholics, 54% to 45%, made gains among regular churchgoers and eroded a bit of the evangelical support that has been a fixture of Republican electoral success for years, exit polls showed." Newsweek looks at Obama's performance numbers among Evangelicals, Catholics, Jews and Secularists, finding that despite the "fairly relentless God talk" in Obama's campaign 75% of secularists voted for him. As to Evangelicals, McCain got around 74% of their vote, but that was a 5% decrease from George Bush's performance. And a separate article in today's Wall Street Journal suggests that McCain's still strong showing among Evangelicals belies reports during the campaign that "new Evangelicals" might go with the Democrats. Much of the data was from a study published yesterday by Faith In Public Life.

Yesterday's Forward analyzes the Jewish vote, finding that 78% voted for Obama (a higher number than voted for Kerry in 2004). Earlier in the campaign, the level of Jewish support for Obama was much more questionable. The change was a result of concerted outreach efforts, Jewish unease over Sarah Palin and among some young Jews the possible opportunity to recreate the Black-Jewish alliance of civil rights movement days.

Finally Virtue Online publishes a fascinating account of private meetings during the primary campaign between Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and Obama. Robinson, the first gay bishop consecrated by the Episcopal church, discussed the role of religion in public life with Obama. Robinson, a controversial figure, gave this account of his first meeting with Obama: "The first words out of his mouth were, 'Well you're certainly causing a lot of trouble.' My response to him was, 'Well that makes two of us.'" Robinson says they also talked about their shared experience of being a "first", its dangers and the expectations it creates.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).