This piece from National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” talks about the work of Public Religion Research, Robert P. Jones’ new book, Progressive and Religious, and the change in the political landscape from 2004 to 2008. The full text from NPR’s website is available here.
How McCain Shed Pariah Status Among Evangelicals
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
When it comes to evangelicals, John McCain has remade himself in eight short years. The Republican candidate was a pariah to religious conservatives during his run for the White House in 2000. This time around, he’s not exactly a Messiah but he has won over his base…
“I think 2004 really was the high-water mark of the religious right in America,” says Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research and author of Progressive and Religious.
Jones says the culture wars do not excite religious voters the way they used to.
“What we had in 2004 was a very artificial constriction of religion to be about abortion and same-sex marriage,” he says. “We also had in a way we hadn’t seen before an artificial constriction of religion to be about one political party. And it’s not sustainable.”
Jones’ polls show abortion and same-sex marriage don’t even rank in the top five issues for evangelicals, much less other religious voters.
Continue reading the full piece from NPR here.