David N. Bass, November 4, 2004

If anything is evident in the aftermath of the November 2 elections, it's that evangelical Christians are largely responsible for President Bush's victory. To the glee of the Bush camp, the 4 million Christian conservatives who failed to show up at the polls in 2000 came out in droves last Tuesday. I don't think it's too bold to say they handed President Bush his second term.

According to exit poll data collected by CNN (itself hardly a bastion of conservative moral thought), 22% of voters nationwide named "moral values" as their top issue. Of that figure, 79% backed President Bush. Terrorism was second on the list at 19%. Amazingly enough, the one issue both John Kerry and George Bush continually harped on during their respective campaigns (the war in Iraq) came in at fourth with only 15% of voters citing it as their primary concern.

Granted, we all know exit polls are not the most reliable source for understanding which way voters are leaning, but exit polls are not the only place that displayed a solid showing from evangelical Christians. On the subject of same-sex unions -- this year's most controversial moral issue -- the November 2 elections illustrated a resounding showing among Christians. Voters in 11 states across the country approved amending their state constitutions to define marriage as between one man and one woman. In most of those 11 states, a marriage amendment passed by an overwhelming margin, often as great as three-to-one in favor. Even in traditionally liberal states such as Oregon and Michigan, a solid majority of voters backed the amendment.

It's clear that Christian evangelicals are largely responsible for the outpouring of support for the state marriage amendments. The same-sex marriage events in San Francisco and Massachusetts earlier this year have definitely ruffled the feathers of Christians across the country. Had the marriage issue not been so critical during the 2004 elections, many Christians would have stayed home on November 2. It sounds odd to say now, but conservatives should really be thankful the marriage issue came up during an election year. It electrified the Christian underpinning of this country and delivered a major victory to President Bush.

Some news organizations and political pundits have credited the President's campaign coordinator Karl Rove with the outpouring of Christian support. While it's obvious that Rove and his associates had a legitimate interest in attracting the 4 million evangelical voters who did not show up to support Bush in 2000, I think it's drastically unfair to grant him the credit. While God is the inevitable source of any good that came from this election, work at the grassroots level is largely responsible for the dramatic showing among evangelical Christians. Such Christian organizations as Focus on the Family, the Center for Reclaiming America, the Family Research Council, and many other such groups deserve all the credit. They communicated the critical nature of this election to Christian voters and showed the necessity of participation in the political process.

But now that Christians have flocked to the polls and been faithful to the Republicans, the question remains if President Bush and the House and Senate remain faithful to them. Over the past few decades, moral issues have been near the bottom of most politicians' totem poll. Candidates are reticent to make any firm commitments on moral issues due to their controversial nature. Now, President Bush and the Republican Congress have a strong mandate from the American people to address the moral morass that currently plagues our nation.

Now is the time both the President and Congress should lay aside appeasing the Democrats and realize that the voters of the United States of America have given them this level of power for a reason. We did not elect them to soft-peddle on the sanctity of life and marriage, nor did we put them in office to play political games with religious expression in the public square or a host of other issues.

That is why the battle is far from over. Granted, we have a conservative President and a Republican majority in Congress. But now it is the responsibility of those evangelical Christians who overwhelmingly flocked to the polls last Tuesday to ensure that these representatives do not dodge the important moral issues that must be addressed.

Politicians inevitably shy away from moral issues; it's our responsibility to consistently remind them precisely who put them in office, and make sure they strongly and faithfully support a Christian perspective in our nation's halls of government. If these conservative elected officials choose to turn their backs on the primary constituency that enabled them to be elected in the first place, then 2008 could indeed be a totally different ballgame for Republicans -- a losing one.

Copyright 2004 by David N. Bass