11/19/04
ELECTION 2004,
UPON CLOSER EXAMINATION
Many Christians are absolutely giddy about the election 2004 results. But we would be wise to scrutinize the data more closely, as the article at
http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/archives/rhetoric_and_politics/ makes clear. Here are some excerpts from the article:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“…As survey after survey of contemporary social attitudes
demonstrates, social conservatives no more represent the mainstream or the
future than Prohibitionists did in the 1920s. If anything, it's the baby-boom
sensibility spawned in the 1960s that has become mainstream in America today.
As conservative columnist George Will lamented a few years back, politics
"seems peripheral to, and largely impotent against, cultural forces and
institutions permeated with what conservatives consider the sixties
sensibility."
… How little the "moral values" voter represents the future is evident in surveys of today's youth, who may be the most inclusive, tolerant and socially liberal generation in our nation's history. From the media we hear all about the controversies of the so-called culture war, such as the occasional school superintendent who shuts down all school clubs to keep gay and straight high school students from forming "gay-straight" clubs. But what we don't hear is that these clubs have quietly formed in about 2,800 schools nationwide. In fact, research on young people confirms that they have little patience for intolerance, that they have no problem accepting homosexuality, that most even support the right of gay people to marry.
According to
Steinhorn, about half of all teens today (1/3 of whom are white) have dated
across racial/ethnic lines, and most of those relationships are considered
“serious.” According to polls, “on the issues of race, homosexuality, premarital
sex, gender roles, the environment and issues involving personal freedom,”
today’s youth—along with their baby boomer parents—consistently claim a
position tolerance and inclusiveness.
If younger voters were the only ones with these attitudes,
social conservatives might be able to lay claim to a "moral values"
mandate for a very long time. But younger voters represent the mainstream much
more than the initial exit polling would indicate. The illusion of a
predominant "moral values" voting bloc has much to do with the fact
that the most traditional and socially conservative Americans, pre-baby
boomers, are living much longer lives and voting in very large numbers --
skewing exit polls and thus our image of the mainstream. Once younger voters
begin to replace them, the socially conservative vote will return to the
margins of American life.
There’s something
to be thankful for. According to Steinhorn, “the only generation gap that
remains is the same one that began in the '60s, between pre-boomers and the
rest of us. What we have today is a pre-baby boom cohort that's steadfastly
conservative, with the vast majority of everyone younger leaning the opposite
way.” According to a 2002 poll by the Center for Information and Research on
Civic Learning and Engagement, only pre-boomers still believe homosexuality
shouldn’t be regarded by society as an acceptable way of life.
Despite the
phenomenon of the “hateful vote,” those who turned out in droves to make sure
gays and lesbians continued to be denied basic citizen’s rights, exit polls
show that three in five voters support same sex marriage or civil unions. And
more:
Much has been made of the Roman Catholic hierarchy's
opposition to John Kerry's pro-choice stance, and by inference the press has
bought the stereotype of the socially conservative Catholic. But again the
stereotype misleads. Among boomer and younger Catholics, NORC finds, only 27
percent label themselves traditional, compared with 44 percent among
pre-boomers. And religious liberals now exceed traditionalists in this younger
cohort. Most Catholics now reject, if not resent, church dogma restricting
social tolerance and personal freedom. Recent surveys by the New York Times and
Newsweek show large majorities favoring married priests, female priests, gay
adoptions and birth control. And barely a third want abortion outlawed, no
different from the proportion in the rest of America.
Nor are these mere
attitudes. Most estimates suggest that Catholics obtain abortions at the same
rate as other Americans, and despite the church's ban on divorce, the
percentage of Catholics separated or divorced is right at the national average.
Growing numbers of boomer and younger Catholics also believe you can marry
outside the church and still be a good Catholic, and about a third of younger
Catholics do just that. If the church required adherence to its traditional
teachings, one Jesuit writer observed, "I'm afraid we're going to have
nobody taking Communion."
And apparently,
the situation is virtually the same for Americans of all faiths. According to
polls, most Americans now feel they have no right to “impose their personal
morality on another’s private behavior,” and yet, these same Americans do claim
to have strong morals:
For baby boomers and younger people, there's nothing
equivocal about their views of right and wrong. These Americans condemn
bigotry, intolerance and discrimination. They reject constraints on personal
freedom and don't like it when women are not treated as equals. They find
pollution objectionable and see nothing moral in imposing religious beliefs on
others. They believe a moral upbringing is teaching kids to think for
themselves, not to follow another's rules. What they embrace are pluralism,
privacy, freedom of choice, diversity and respect for people with different
traditions. Perhaps the only thing missing from this new morality is a
politician capable of articulating it.
This new mainstream is mostly
silent right now, but Steinhorn predicts that the instant laws are passed that
really challenge their own morals, they will be silent no more: “When
the trustees at James Madison University in rural Virginia voted to ban the
morning-after pill from the student health center in 2003, the largely
conservative student body rose up within 36 hours and demanded change. Consider
that a microcosm of what would happen nationwide.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So the sad reality is that America is descending
further and further into the moral cesspool, Christian perceptions of the 2004
election notwithstanding.