Taking the Faithful for Granted

There has been much ink spilled and electrons energized in post-election ruminations by various people in an effort to explain why voters left the Democrats and chose their opponents instead.  Most analysis has focused on economic, governmental control, or competence issues.  Now, another shortcoming has been introduced as a contributing factor.

As Democrats conduct a grim postmortem on Tuesday’s (Nov. 2) elections, some liberal leaders say one diagnosis is already clear: the party’s outreach to religious voters was lifeless from the
start.

My first thought on reading that was “Hmm. I wonder if their ‘outreach’ in past elections was sincere or was it simple pandering?” After all, the left has long been known to be at best indifferent to and often openly hostile to the faithful, especially Jews and Christians.

Thomas [DNC’s director of faith and constituent outreach], a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said she organized conference calls and events on religion with black women, state party chairs, and college Democrats. In some areas, however, religion was subsumed within other programs — such as Hispanic and gay outreach, Thomas said.

“Staff responsible for constituencies were responsible for adding faith outreach to that,” she said.

But McCurry [White House press secretary under Bill Clinton] said religion “is not something you tack on to the end of your game plan. It’s fundamentally at the heart of how you connect with voters, who clearly drifted from the Democratic Party last night.”

Sapp [a partner at Eleison Group, a consulting firm that worked on religious outreach for dozens of Democratic campaigns in 2006 and 2008 — but none this year] said party leaders spent little money on religious outreach, signaling to rank-and-file Democrats that they shouldn’t either. [emphasis mine]

The left considers religion an odd affectation for people who lack self-esteem. That the DNC saw faith outreach as an afterthought offers at least one explanation for this phenomenon.

But the Rev. Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical who is close to Democratic leaders, said Tuesday’s election pointed to the party’s lack of vision, not networks.

“It’s a lot deeper than outreach,” Wallis said. “They haven’t connected with many Americans in terms of their daily lives and values. As Proverbs says, `Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ And people are perishing.” [emphasis mine]

Faith outreach, like faith itself, comes from inside; it cannot be put on like a jacket only when it’s needed.