Church Participation and Voting Trends in the U.S.

Church participation within elections is a very interesting thing. Various churches that are part of a much larger congregation tend to endorse candidates looking out for their views. Currently, the GOP's base consists of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or W.A.S.P. for short. Another term would be for a W.A.S.P. could be a White Conservative Christian. But, W.A.S.P.s can vote either way. In the south, the W.A.S.P.s tend to vote to the right while the W.A.S.P.s up north tend to vote to the left.

The biggest example of church participation and the voting trend between churchgoers took place around the 2004 Presidential Election between G.W. Bush and John F. Kerry. Bush is a Protestant while Kerry is a Catholic. Faith plays a big role in the Presidential races. Bush got a good number of the votes from the Southern Baptists while Kerry got a good number of votes from the Catholics on the east coast. But that can only take you so far.

The church managed to make "morals" the number one topic in the '04 election. Not only did it give the church especially the Evangelical Christian Church a good amount of power, it affected voting trends. For example there were big issues that were overlooked such as Iraq, Medicare, employment, and other subjects. Instead, they were overshadowed by issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage which were considered no-nos in the church.

Kerry himself is against abortion, but he would allow abortions if he got elected President. Both the Protestant and Catholic church pounded on him. Catholics out west tend to vote Republican from what I have heard. And the various church congregations rallied together to vote for Bush because he was against gay marriages, gay adoptions, and other gay rights.