FOR SOME RELIGIOUS, POLITICS MAY DRIVE THEM FROM THEIR TRADITIONAL CHURCH AFFILIATION

Does the GOP have a lock on God?:

"In fact, 1960 may prove a more interesting guide to 2004 than 2000, because this year (like 1960) an incredibly tight race will be decided by just a few voters in just a few states. White evangelical voters are now solidly Republican, but they're also concentrated in 'red' GOP states certain to vote for Bush. This year, the big key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida all have bigger Catholic than evangelical populations. And that could make this year's 'religious vote' a surprise.

In 1960, 81 percent of America's Roman Catholics voted for John F. Kennedy, a phenomenal partisan swing they've never repeated. That won't happen this year. But if only a few thousand more Catholics than usual opt in each of those swing states for a Catholic Democrat over a 'born-again' Republican, it could easily turn the vaunted power of the Religious Right upside down -- and set America on a new political course.

More and more religious Americans, I suspect, are being driven from their traditional church affiliation because of a perceived misalignment of theology/church doctrine and their political persuasions. In our family of formerly staunch Southern Baptists, for instance, my sister and her husband have fled to their local Methodist congregation because of the pain of hearing constant diatribes from the Baptist pulpit against homosexuals (their son died of AIDS). My husband and I left the Southern Baptists a decade ago because we go to church to receive Bible teaching and for the fellowship of our fellow Christians -- not for visits from Republican politicians and endorsements of their policies from the pulpit, and because we were labeled "suspicious left-wingers" for resisting pressure to politicize and publicize our twelve-year-old daughter's anti-abortion activities.

I doubt we are alone. While the GOP may think it has a "lock on God," many blogs indicate to me that there is something different going on today. The explosion of interest in Bible study has resulted in a tideswell of Christians better informed of the actual teachings of the Scriptures and less reliant upon the pronouncements of "religious leaders," Christians more confident in their ability to interpret God speaking to them directly and less inclined to accept a president who says he listens to God but seems more to be giving orders to Him.

For reference, I'll just include Easter Lemming and The Village Gate (formerly The Right Christians). Not to mention, of course, No More Apples.