{"id":827,"date":"2008-09-11T10:22:05","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T10:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/09\/palin-excitement-in-florida.html"},"modified":"2008-09-11T10:22:05","modified_gmt":"2008-09-11T10:22:05","slug":"palin-excitement-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/09\/palin-excitement-in-florida.html","title":{"rendered":"The Religious Right in Florida: It&#8217;s Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" height=\"121\" alt=\"ccflorida.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/211\/import\/imgs\/ccflorida.jpg\" width=\"121\" \/><\/span>In Florida, long a hotbed for evangelical\/Christian Right activity, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/486\/story\/679697.html\">the Miami Herald reports<\/a> Barack Obama&#8217;s evangelical outreach is running into some roadblocks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When two prominent evangelical Christians from Florida agreed to speak at the Democratic National Convention, the party proudly pointed to Barack Obama&#8217;s aggressive outreach to a traditionally Republican voting bloc.<\/p>\n<p>But one, a Christian magazine publisher, decided not to go on stage, and the other, the Rev. Joel Hunter, who gave the benediction after Obama&#8217;s speech, said Tuesday he is &#8221;laying low&#8221; until after the election.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, several leaders of the religious right in Florida say they are more enthused than ever about Republican John McCain, pointing to his strong performance at a nationally televised forum at a California church and his staunchly anti-abortion running mate, Sarah Palin&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>The Christian Coalition of Florida is preparing to distribute three million voter guides that will not offer endorsements but will outline the candidates&#8217; divergent positions on abortion, gay rights and school vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;That stay-at-home thing is over,&#8221; said Dennis Baxley, the group&#8217;s executive director. &#8220;There has been a marked shift from people saying they will vote for John McCain to people saying that they will work for the ticket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Herald notes that Obama&#8217;s Floridi religious outreach is robust:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Obama&#8217;s camp is not deterred, pointing to 1,677 &#8221;faith captains&#8221; around Florida who are mobilizing voters in their churches and synagogues. In a sign that the campaign is taking pains to reach the African-American slice of the Christian community, two prominent black Democrats, U.S. Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and John Lewis of Georgia, are meeting this week with religious leaders in Florida.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/2008\/president\/fl\/florida_mccain_vs_obama-418.html\">new Quinnipiac poll<\/a> giving McCain a 7-point lead in the Sunshine State, Obama&#8217;s religious outreach team has good reason to worry about their standing with the formidable bloc of sunbelt evangelicals there.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Florida, long a hotbed for evangelical\/Christian Right activity, the Miami Herald reports Barack Obama&#8217;s evangelical outreach is running into some roadblocks: When two prominent evangelical Christians from Florida agreed to speak at the Democratic National Convention, the party proudly pointed to Barack Obama&#8217;s aggressive outreach to a traditionally Republican voting bloc. But one, a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Religious Right in Florida: It&#039;s Alive - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/09\/palin-excitement-in-florida.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Religious Right in Florida: It&#039;s Alive - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Florida, long a hotbed for evangelical\/Christian Right activity, the Miami Herald reports Barack Obama&#8217;s evangelical outreach is running into some roadblocks: When two prominent evangelical Christians from Florida agreed to speak at the Democratic National Convention, the party proudly pointed to Barack Obama&#8217;s aggressive outreach to a traditionally Republican voting bloc. 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