{"id":137,"date":"2008-09-13T18:25:55","date_gmt":"2008-09-13T18:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/what-values.html"},"modified":"2008-09-13T18:25:55","modified_gmt":"2008-09-13T18:25:55","slug":"what-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/what-values.html","title":{"rendered":"What values?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO’S VOTING VALUES-AND WHAT VALUES<\/p>\n

I got two separate documents on the computer on the same day that made me pause. If we hear the same language long enough, we can begin to believe it. One of those is certainly the relationship between religion and politics in the United States-a connection, incidentally, that never fails to fascinate, amuse, disconcert and amaze my European friends. For an American, however, the association is a firm one, a solid bond, a given.<\/p>\n

For instance, one of today’s messages was an alert to Roman Catholics to tell them how important “the Catholic vote” is to the outcome of the election. To make the point, it lists the items which, it says, “matter most to people of faith.” They are, according to this group, “The economy, health care, stalled progress against abortion under President Bush, global warming, torture as an instrument of foreign policy and bellicose approaches to relations abroad.” <\/p>\n

It seems reasonable to assume then that these particular issues would be high on party platforms, high on campaigners agendas, high on voters interest scales and high on the list of voters’ determinants. The party that stress these things, the data seems to indicate, is the hands-down choice of the American voting public. Not so fast. <\/p>\n

Then I read the second internet message, the one from the The Gallup Poll, and wondered whether we might not all be kidding ourselves about which issues really drive religious voters in elections-at least in this election-in the United States. According to Gallup’s poll of important issues, (Sept. 5-7, 2008) likely voters, when asked the question “Which of the following issues are most important to your vote for president? responded in the following order: <\/p>\n

the economy                             42%<\/p>\n

situation in Iraq                         13%<\/p>\n

energy, gas prices                    13%<\/p>\n

health care                                 13%<\/p>\n

terrorism                                     12%<\/p>\n

illegal immigration                        1%<\/p>\n

abortion                                         1%<\/p>\n

education                                       1%<\/p>\n

environment                                   0.5%<\/p>\n

other                                              4% (global warming, torture, bellicose foreign                                                  policy)<\/p>\n

So the question is where are all these so-called ‘values voters?”<\/p>\n

If the political statisticians are correct and there are 47, 000,000 voting Catholics in the United States, only 470,000 of them or less are choosing their presidential candidate out of their concern for illegal immigration, abortion, education, the environment, global warming, torture, or this administration’s bellicose foreign policy. Only approximately 6,000,000 Catholics will determine their presidential choice over the situation in Iraq or terrorism or even health care. <\/p>\n

The Gallup Report does not break those figures down denominationally<\/a> but the implications are clear: religious issues, values issues, however important some groups define them, are not driving this election. <\/p>\n

“It’s the economy, stupid,” that almost half the voting public will take into the voting booth with them. <\/p>\n

Maybe we all need to think again about how well the Christian template really resonates in the electoral process. Maybe we even need to think again about how well we who consider ourselves religious professionals are all teaching it in our churches, our synagogues, our temples and our mosques. On test day, it seems, the very issues we say are at the core of the electoral process barely show. Maybe that’s why so many people want the government to legislate them for them. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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A Benedictine Sister of Erie, PA, Sister Joan is an international lecturer and award-winning author of more than 40 books. She is the founder and executive director of Benetvision.: a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality located in Erie. Currently she serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the UN, facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders, particularly in Israel and Palestine. In March 2008 she was an organizer of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Making Way for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a conference held in Jaipur, India. She is the co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives with Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cornel West. In April 2005, her commentary from Rome on the month-long papal events was aired on CNN, the BBC and all national US media networks. On Easter Sunday 2006, she was a guest on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Meet the Press with Tim Russert\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in 2004, she was a guest of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153NOW with Bill Moyers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A regular columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, Sister Joan has received numerous awards and recognition for her work for justice, peace and equality, especially for women in the Church and in society. Eight of her books have received awards from the Catholic Press Association, including a First Place Award in 2008 for Welcome to the Wisdom of the World (Eerdmans). Her most recent book, The Gift of Years: growing older gracefully(BlueBridge 2008) has been a consistent best seller since its release. Her 1990 book on monastic spirituality, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, (Harper) is considered a classic in contemporary spirituality Sister Joan has appeared with the Dali Lama at the First Emory (University) Summit of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding last October and at Seeds of Compassion in April 2008. She attended the Fourth UN Conference of Women in Beijing and the 1999 Parliament of World Religions in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1996 she was an invited fellow and research associate at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University. In 2001 she held the Brueggeman Chair of Ecumenical Theology at Xavier University. She was a member, from 2003-06, of the international and inter-religious Niwano Peace Foundation in Tokyo who award the prestigious annual Niwano Peace Prize. She has served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, (an organization of the leaders\/superiors of the over 67,000 Catholic religious women in the US), president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses (1974-90), and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years. Sister Joan received her doctorate from Penn State University in speech communications theory.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/jchittister"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}