Presumed Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama is making an appeal to the Evangelical Christian community. His main focus in this regard is to mobilize and solidify the “Christian left” or the “religious left.” Yes, there is such a thing called the “Religious left.” There is not just the “Religious right.” However, the “Religious left” or the “Christian left” is something that has barely been focused on.
The votes from the Evangelical bloc has been something that that the GOP has enjoyed when it came to US Presidential elections. United States President George W. Bush had enjoyed such support from Evangelical voters. However, it is not stopping Obama from reaching out to Evangelical voters.
Obama is getting assistance from a political action committee called “Matthew 25.” This group is comprised of moderate Protestants and Catholics. The name of Matthew 25 comes from the inspiration from the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
The presumed Democratic nominee seems to be making some progress according to Brian McLaren. McLaren is an informal adviser to the Barack Obama campaign. Before working with the Obama campaign, McLaren was a pastor for about twenty-four years. He explains that Obama is doing a good job of reaching out to the younger evangelicals.
The younger evangelicals could pretty much be linked with Obama’s success with the youth vote. So far, Obama has been enjoying much support from the younger voters. During the Democratic primary statistic shows that younger voters mainly put their support behind Obama rather than Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. As the age groups got higher, the less likely they would support Obama. Instead, the older voters put their support towards Clinton.
McLaren explains that the younger Evangelicals are open to someone with a new vision. In short, they find Obama’s message to be attractive. Also, Obama is not focusing on the typical social issues. Instead, Obama is focused on issues such as the economy, global warming, Iraq, and so forth.
However, Obama’s social stances have been attacked by Evangelicals.
While Obama is successful with Evangelicals, most white Evangelicals are throwing support behind presumed GOP nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona. However, the level of excitement for McCain is nowhere as near the level of excitement for Bush. Still, not many people within the GOP are warm to McCain as their nominee.
So far, Obama is reaching out to younger Evangelicals. It does seem to pay off. One could parallel this with the Feminist voting bloc during the Democratic primary. The voting bloc was split between younger and older Feminists. While the older Feminists put their support behind Clinton, the younger Feminists put their support behind Obama.
One could predict that the struggle between the younger and the older voters will determine who ends up winning this November.
While most Evangelicals plan to vote for McCain this November, Obama still has a chance of siphoning their support.
Ultimately, it may look like this could be the political battle between the younger generation and the older generation.