The walls and shelves in Gary Bauer\u2019s new office are bare, since he only left the presidential campaign trail a few primaries ago.<\/p>\n\n
But his e-mailbox is bursting and his fax machine is still humming, after his endorsement of Sen. John McCain\u2019s long-shot insurrection.<\/p>\n\n
Bauer has been hearing from Christians \u201cin Timbuktoo\u201d who hope he spends eternity in a sizzling location \u2014 ASAP. But he has been just as stunned by the reaction of Beltway insiders, folks he has known since his Reagan White House days. They accuse him of being a schismatic heretic. Apparently, many GOP strategists believe the so-called Religious Right is exactly what journalists and Democrats say it is \u2014 a voting bloc that obeys a few all-powerful masters.<\/p>\n\n
Read Bauer\u2019s lips: There is no monolith.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many times Republican leaders have said, \u2018GARY, where are these people going to GO? Wait a minute, you don\u2019t think they\u2019ll go vote for AL GORE?\u2019,\u201d he said, mimicking a dismissive tone of voice.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI say, \u2018Yes, some of them will.\u2019 There\u2019s this idea that evangelicals are conservative across the board, when, in fact, many are working class and lower middle-class people who \u2026 would be liberal on some economic issues,\u201d added Bauer, who grew up in blue-collar Newport, Ken. \u201cIf they go to the polls thinking about abortion and gay rights, they\u2019ll vote Republican. But if they go to the polls wondering who\u2019s going to preserve their social security and who wants to make sure they have legal redress if their HMO mistreats them, then they may vote Democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Politicos can\u2019t jam millions of white Protestants into a box plastered with a \u201cReligious Right\u201d label, said Bauer. Meanwhile, morally and culturally conservative voters also can be found among traditional Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Hispanics (Catholic and Protestant), black evangelicals, Jewish conservatives and in other pews.<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s also crucial to remember that the media hellfire that followed Gov. George W. Bush\u2019s South Carolina win didn\u2019t take place in a vacuum. It followed two remarkable years of bitter debate about the role that Christian leaders, especially clergy, should play in politics.<\/p>\n\n
Focus on the Family patriarch James Dobson kicked things off in 1998 by accusing the GOP establishment of betraying Christian voters and said it might be time to abandon the party, even if that meant handing Democrats the White House and Congress. Dobson noted that he could not bring himself to vote for Sen. Bob Dole.<\/p>\n\n
A year later, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation wrote a much-quoted epistle arguing that while religious activists have won a few political victories, they have done little to cleanse the \u201cever-wider sewer\u201d of American culture. His bottom line: It\u2019s sinful to put too much faith in politicians, including Republicans.<\/p>\n\n
Then two former Moral Majority leaders wrote a controversial book in which they said ministers and the ministries that they lead should flee partisan politics and focus on the spiritual needs of their flocks and of nonbelievers. Journalist Cal Thomas and the Rev. Ed Dobson of Grand Rapids, Mich., stressed that they believe many Christians must be active in the political arena \u2014 but not clergy.<\/p>\n\n
Now, Bauer\u2019s open rejection of Bush \u2014 the establishment candidate \u2014 has provoked a fiery rebuke from James Dobson, including digs about McCain\u2019s personal life. Clearly, Dobson and his former Family Research Council colleague are not on the same map.<\/p>\n\n
The ground is moving. But while Bauer stressed that is in full-time politics to stay, he isn\u2019t ready to say that the church and other religious institutions should be silent when America\u2019s hottest political debates veer into religious territory.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAll of the issues that really matter \u2014 whether its racial reconciliation, rebuilding the family, how we treat the poor, setting a place at the table for all of our children \u2014 center on profoundly moral questions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to be dealt with without having American citizens who come from a faith perspective leading the charge, then we\u2019re unlikely to come up with the right answers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
However, he said he has seen more evidence lately of \u201cpolitics transforming Christians, than of Christians transforming politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The walls and shelves in Gary Bauer\u2019s new office are bare, since he only left the presidential campaign trail a few primaries ago. But his e-mailbox is bursting and his fax machine is still humming, after his endorsement of Sen. John McCain\u2019s long-shot insurrection. Bauer has been hearing from Christians \u201cin Timbuktoo\u201d who hope he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n