Democrats Engage in Faith Talk, Make Inroads
April 8, 2008
The Brody File will be attending The Compassion Forum this Sunday in Pennsylvania. It’ll be a great chance for the Democratic candidates (and really, the Democratic Party) to continue hammering home the point that Republicans do not have a corner on the faith talk in this country. Their efforts have been impressive and are working.
You have to hand it to the Democrats. Anytime there’s a chance to talk about faith as it relates to the social justice issues (poverty, Darfur, AIDS, human rights) they are ready to go and willing to talk about how the Bible speaks to those issues. Good for them.
On the flip side, just wondering but where’s the talk about the life and marriage issues? Where’s the talk in these forums about embryonic stem cell research or Terri Schiavo and other very important issues to faith voters? I’ll tell you exactly where they are: remember the Value Voters debate in the fall of last year? That debate addressed those issues. Guess what? Only the most die-hard social conservatives showed up. (Alan Keyes, Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, etc) No McCain, no Romney, definitely no Giuliani.
So let me get this straight: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton show up to talk faith and the Bible in a “social justice setting” like The Compassion Forum while McCain, Romney and Giuliani run away from faith and Bible talk when it comes to a frank discussion of issues that are deeply important to social conservatives?
Mike Huckabee is a supporter of the current Compassion Forum AND the previous Value Voters Debate. Maybe he has it right. The Bible speaks to issues on both the left and right of the political spectrum.
No wonder the Democrats are making inroads with faith voters. The reason is simple: they are engaging in the topic. They may not be talking about the life and marriage issues (which is a separate blog and worthy of discussion) but at least they are not discounting God and the Bible and in turn, people of deep faith. Republican presidential candidates on the other hand (except Huckabee and Brownback) really have had no desire to engage in the faith talk. It’s been a lot of lip service and faith voters on both sides of the political spectrum know the difference between that and real dialogue.
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