barrykind
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Evangelical Voters Could Play Another Critical Role in Fall Elections
By Bill Fancher
August 22, 2002
(AgapePress) - One conservative leader says when it comes to the domestic policies of the Bush Administration, some huge mistakes are being made -- and it might be costing the White House the support and votes of evangelical Christians.
Pro-family advocate Gary Bauer says Christian conservatives are not getting what they were promised prior to the last election. He says conservatives of all types -- social, pro-family, and pro-life -- are supplying the "overwhelming percentage" of the vote for the Republican Party, "but they're getting only a little bit of the Republican Party's political capital on issues that we care about." Bauer thinks that kind of contradiction cannot last for long.
Gary Bauer
Bauer says the evangelical vote has dropped over the past few elections and he blames Republicans for not taking them as seriously as they should. The former presidential candidate explains why conservative Christians are not happy with the GOP.
"The evangelical vote is already dropping," he says. "We were four-million votes short in the last presidential election, and I suspect that part of that -- perhaps the majority of it -- was because so many pro-family, Christian conservatives are growing weary of doing much of the work and providing the votes, but then seeing no progress on things like ending abortion and blocking the agenda of the radical gay-rights movement."
Bauer says unless the GOP takes more favorable action on those social issues, it can expect to see a large chunk of its evangelical vote staying home in the upcoming mid-term elections.
Another conservative spokesman says the moral decline in America will continue unless the evangelical religious voting bloc lets its voice be heard. That's why he is mobilizing his million supporters to take action.
Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition says the decline has happened because America has forgotten the place of religion in her founding. "When George Washington left office, he said a very crucial thing for all of posterity," Sheldon says. "He said 'Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, there are two indispensable supports -- religion and morality.' "
Sheldon says it is time to demand that government acknowledge -- rather than denigrate -- the place of religion in the nation's history and success. He believes it is up to the people to bring this about.
"They need to begin to contact their congressional [representative]. They need to contact their United States Senator," he says. "The hour has come that America needs to have an awakening at the grass-roots level."
Sheldon expects changes to occur once people demand government's support for religious believers.
© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.
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The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
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