| Cathleen Falsani

Liberal evangelical voters come out swinging

How would Jesus swing?

Much effort has been devoted to tracking the behavior of the peculiar voting blocs that could sway this year’s presidential election.

NASCAR dads. Soccer moms. “Sex and the City” women. Angry white men. Missourians.

Ah, but what of that most elusive of voters — the liberal evangelical Christian?

These are Jesus-loving, church-going, Bible-believing Christians who take their faith seriously but don’t let Jerry Falwell set their agenda.

Call them Jesus-centric centrists.

Moderate evangelicals, who hold more-or-less traditional Christian beliefs but are slightly less active in church than those who better fit the “religious right” stereotype, make up about 10 percent of the electorate, according to John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron.

Then there are the liberal evangelicals, more theologically liberal than their moderate brethren but still firmly encamped inside evangelical denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention.

This most curious minority, which makes up about 2.5 percent of voters, could end up swinging the election in Sen. John Kerry’s favor, Green and other pol watchers say.

Evangelicals are a really big group — almost a quarter of the American electorate, if you include their most conservative, orthodox members. Like Falwell.

And they’re anything but monolithic, whether it comes to their taste in film — not all of them enjoyed “The Passion of Christ,” for instance — or their choice for president.

Take, for example, five of my roommates from Wheaton College. All are graduates of that evangelical Christian institution in the Chicago suburbs that counts the Rev. Billy Graham and U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert among its alumni.

Among my former roomies, there are two full-fledged soccer moms, at least one “Sex and the City” woman, two stay-at-home moms, an Orange County, Calif., Republican and one Missourian.

They’re all churchgoing evangelicals in their 30s. Four happily call themselves liberals. A fifth prefers to think of herself as a moderate.

When it comes to Bush vs. Kerry, these five women who share the same faith have five different, spiritually motivated ideas about how — or even if — they will cast their vote.

Kelley, a public high school teacher and mother of two from suburban St. Louis, says Kerry has won her coveted vote. (She’s the trifecta of swing voters: liberal evangelical, soccer mom, Missourian.)

“I’m voting for him because I feel like [President] Bush has made way too many mistakes,” she said. “The war in Iraq is just a mess…. I think Kerry has this really good common-sense plan.

“When I think about how he is going to pay for all these things, because I feel there are a lot of really expensive initiatives he’s talking about, I don’t care as much about that. I think you have to go in with big ideas, and I applaud that.”

Kerry’s comments at the 1993 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., particularly impressed her.

“I’m telling you, that was the most evangelical-sounding Catholic I’ve ever heard,” she said. “He was really personal, powerful, and it wasn’t just faith put on for politics. It seemed real to me.”

She doesn’t feel that way about Bush. “It’s not like I think he’s not pious, but it’s something that he puts on instead of something that he really has within him.”

Melinda, an artist and stay-at-home mother of triplets who lives in Orange County, says Bush’s faith is a big part of why she’ll be voting for him next month.

“I have to vote to re-elect George,” she said. “I think his belief system is closest to my own, and although we may disagree on some issues, I can count on him to stand firm on the ones most important to me. Particularly the sanctity of human life. I have to vote a pro-life ticket. It’s the single most important issue for me.”

Melinda is not impressed with how Kerry integrates — or doesn’t — his faith into his politics.

“While Kerry professes a strong belief system, I don’t see it reflected in how he has voted on certain issues,” she said. “He may be wary of imposing his values on others, but severing his moral reasoning to please certain constituents is cowardly and ridiculous.”

It looks like both of my homegirls in New York City will vote for Kerry, although not with any great enthusiasm.

“I’m voting for John Kerry, but I’m not in love with John Kerry,” said Joanna, a single actor who lives in Brooklyn. “I’m so afraid of what can happen to this country if there’s another four years of Bush. … You go to war not because you want to, but because you have to. As a Christian, that’s a huge thing. I’d like to think that Bush just didn’t want to finish his daddy’s war, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.

“I’m not convinced that Kerry definitely is going to be a fantastic president. I don’t have that kind of faith in him, exactly. And I hate that I always feel it comes down to the lesser of two evils,” she said.

Joanna plans to pray before she vote Nov. 2.

“I think I did that before I voted for [Al] Gore, as well,” she said.

Kathy is a stay-at home mom and philanthropist who lives in Manhattan, where she regularly attends an evangelical Protestant church.

Her faith deeply influences the choices she makes politically, particularly, “the part of my faith that manifests itself in caring for people with AIDS and viewing everybody as a creation of God with worth, which is a typical, more liberal thing,” she said.

She thinks she’ll vote for Kerry, but Ralph Nader has a certain appeal, too, she said.

“I don’t trust any of them,” she said. “I don’t think a good man can be president. Jimmy Carter was a good man, but he was a horrible president.”

Then there’s my friend Linda, a television producer in Los Angeles who regularly attends a Presbyterian church in Hollywood. She’s ashamed to say it, but she’s not planning to vote.

“I haven’t seen a candidate in years that seems thoughtful, and as a result, I feel morally unable to choose one over the other,” Linda said. “I find myself sacrificing my beliefs in democracy to avoid making the wrong decision.”

At least take a swing.