BY GREG HOLT

In print | Published November 11, 2004

What motivates faith-based voting?

In the days following the election, I’ve heard many conversations about why and how George W. Bush became president for a second term. Many primarily blame Christian-based populations, and suggest that religious value systems are not clear-sighted or are somehow deficient.

Personally, as a faith-based voter, my priorities are not aligned with those of the current administration, and I find it confusing how conservative religious groups, at times claimed to be wary of big spenders and increasing government intrusion into private lives, rally around a president in favor of both these things. Further, it is confusing to me the way that Bush puts faith into practice. In support of a “culture of life” (debate transcripts from debates.org) Bush justifies cutting funding for family-planning organizations which sometimes provide abortion counseling, including aid organizations fighting the spread of HIV internationally.

However, 31 percent of the budget is dedicated to violence and death, and Bush does not seem troubled by increasing violent military conflict worldwide (budget analysis from warresisters.org). In addition, condemned by nearly every major religious denomination in the United States, Bush personally signed the death warrants of 131 people as governer of Texas (specifics from commondreams.org). It is true that some Christian groups find some of these deaths vastly more abhorrent than others, but I’m not sure on what basis.

In discourse concerning marriage, many groups define traditions of marriage only for a very limited context, ignoring ubiquitous historical polygamy, biblical laws requiring a man to marry his widowed sisters-in-law, around a thousand years of Orthodox and Catholic liturgy describing the sanctification of lifelong same-sex unions (see “Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe” by John Boswell), and existing religious groups which perform same-gender marriages. While these may be interpreted in different ways, it is clear that marriage in its current form is neither universal nor ancient.

Along with most of my friends who are Christian, I am nervous getting involved with most explicitly Christian groups for fear that their priorities will conflict radically with my own. I hope that religious groups, especially those on campus, will be more vocal about foundations for their beliefs so that faith-based groups do not become increasingly associated with violently, even fatally intrusive political agendas.

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