Falwell's 'Vote Christian' Criticized

Falwell's 'Vote Christian' Criticized

Does that mean blessed are the peacemakers? Does that mean driving the moneychangers from the temple?

Oh, wait. This is FALWELL. He IS one of the moneychangers in the temple:

Falwell, founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and Moral Majority, included with his mass fundraising letter for Falwell Ministries a sticker that reads, "I Vote Christian."

"What I was saying was for conservative Christian voters to vote their values, which are pro-life and pro-family."

The stories (ABC's is typical) all focus on Jewish groups being offended by the remark, without one word from any progressive Christians.

Meanwhile, more hand-wringing from Dems about the "Culture Gap":

The study is based on focus groups of rural voters in Wisconsin and Arkansas and disaffected supporters of President Bush in Colorado and Kentucky. The good news for Democrats: All the groups expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the country and with the leadership of the president and the GOP-controlled Congress.

Then came the bad news: "As powerful as the concern over these issues is, the introduction of cultural themes - specifically gay marriage, abortion, the importance of the traditional family unit and the role of religion in public life - quickly renders them almost irrelevant in terms of electoral politics at the national level," the study said.

Now, the last two we can perhaps work with: we support families by promoting education, health care, day care, those bread and butter issues. And faith isn't a BAD thing in public life, as long as it's not the forced school prayer variety. The Dem's weakness here is we have a dearth of credibility, of people who can express faith in an integrated way like, say, Jimmy Carter could.

That's all symbolism (except school prayer and those related issues). But we can't cave on substance.

Choice is a majority position anyway so that's a non-starter. I'd like STRONGER pro-choice positions and rhetoric myself. And we need to LEAD on gay issues, portray them as matters of personal freedom. That's a "problem" that will solve itself in a generation anyway; a look at the numbers shows opposition to gay marriage increases with age.

Politics