{"id":1565,"date":"2012-03-13T10:27:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T16:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/takeandread\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2012-03-13T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T16:27:24","slug":"politicians-faith-and-attack-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/takeandread\/2012\/03\/politicians-faith-and-attack-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians, Faith and Attack Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton was reported to have responded, \u201cBecause that\u2019s where they keep the money.\u201d\u00a0 It was an honest and straightforward answer.\u00a0 Willie had certain goals in mind, namely the acquisition of large sums of money with a minimum amount of time and effort invested.\u00a0 Large sums of money are kept in banks.\u00a0 So, there you go, a match made in heaven!\u00a0 Willie waltzes into one of those money-holding places, makes a \u201cwithdrawal,\u201d and is on his way.<\/p>\n

Why do politicians use attack ads?\u00a0 In particular, why do they feel the need to use ads that attack each other\u2019s faith?\u00a0 Well, because voters are where the votes are, and attack ads are successful in manipulating voters to vote in particular ways.\u00a0 Just look back at a few of the state primaries as a lesson in the effectiveness of negative ads.\u00a0 In different cases, Santorum and Gingrich had led Romney in a particular states primary polling.\u00a0 Then Mr. Romney brought his enormous financial resources to bear, blanketing the media with negative ads, and as quick as a wink, the polls shifted significantly, often reversing so that Mr. Romney ended up winning the primary in question.\u00a0 It was not generally the case that Mr. Romney was successful in clarifying his positions.\u00a0 In fact, that was not the main point.\u00a0 No, the main point was to criticize, often out of context or in misleading ways, his opponents.\u00a0 Oh, don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s not that the other candidates did not try to do the same.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that Mr. Romney\u2019s cash advantage made it possible for him to largely \u201cdrown out\u201d the other voices.<\/p>\n

Religious faith seems to have become one of the favorite topics to use for negative ads.\u00a0 We have already seen several cases of that this year\u2014Santorum considers the President\u2019s Christian faith based on a \u201cphony theology,\u201d Franklin Graham announced his doubts about the President\u2019s faith (though he has since apologized) as well as his view that Romney, as a Mormon, was not really a Christian.\u00a0 An overwhelming percentage of Americans self-identify as Christian, and attack ads that question the Christian faith of a given politician projects a sense of \u201cotherness\u201d on that candidate.\u00a0 One wonders how this will unfold if Romney is the Republican candidate\u2014will his Mormon faith<\/a> make him an \u201coutsider\u201d to many Christians?\u00a0 On President Obama, we continue to see efforts to identify him not only as \u201cnot Christian,\u201d but also to place him in the Muslim camp.\u00a0 In fact, polls just out of likely GOP voters indicate that a plurality (45%) in Alabama and a majority (52%) in Mississippi identify Obama as a Muslim.\u00a0 The fact that Obama self-identifies as a Christian and that he has more than once given his Christian testimony seems not much to matter.<\/p>\n

It was long ago recognized that the success of democracy rests on the voting public getting accurate and factual information.\u00a0 Negative ads which merely attack the other person does little to move the needle on voter awareness.\u00a0 Ones that attack a candidate\u2019s faith largely because he or she is \u201cdifferent\u201d than us probably creates more havoc in voter awareness than help.\u00a0 Yet, we get back to where we started\u2014they do it because it works.\u00a0 My challenge to you, for this election season is just this:\u00a0 Do not let them mislead and distract you with campaign ads aimed to hijack Christian faith for partisan gain!\u00a0 Make them talk to us about the substantive proposals they have for the substantial problems we face.\u00a0 Do not let them only tell you why \u201che is the wrong guy,\u201d make them tell you why they are the right person to take the helm of our country at this point.\u00a0 Remember, they do this kind of advertising because it works, and as soon as we make it \u201cnot work,\u201d they\u2019ll stop.\u00a0 Will you join us?<\/p>\n

Chuck Gutenson is the co-author of <\/em>Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide, now featured at the Patheos Book Club.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hijacked co-author Chuck Gutenson on partisan politics: “My challenge to you, for this election season is just this: Do not let them mislead and distract you with campaign ads aimed to hijack Christian faith for partisan gain!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":777,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPoliticians, Faith and Attack Ads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hijacked co-author Chuck Gutenson on partisan politics: "My challenge to you, for this election season is just this: Do not let them mislead and distract you with campaign ads aimed to hijack Christian faith for partisan gain!"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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