Religion played big role in presidential election
Kevin Eckstrom/Religion News Service
Issue date: 1/4/09 Section: Cover
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God, it seems, couldn't be entirely wooed by either party.
The unprecedented and extraordinary prominence of religion in the 2008 election was easily the year's top religion story. Both parties battled hard for religious voters, and both were forced to distance themselves from outspoken clergy whose fiery rhetoric threatened to become a political liability.
In the end, the top prize went to Obama, the son of a Muslim-born father and an atheist mother, who spent much of the campaign fighting off persistent - and untrue - rumors that he was a closet Muslim. His party, after years of consistently losing churchgoers to Republicans, decisively won Catholics, Jews, Black Protestants and made small but significant inroads among some evangelicals.
McCain, meanwhile, managed to shore up his dispirited base of religious conservatives, winning three out of four born-again or evangelical votes, but his troubled campaign could not overcome an onslaught of negative economic news that, in the end, trumped all other issues.
"It's very tempting but a bit dangerous to over-interpret what happened," said Luis Lugo, executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "Clearly, Obama improved across all religious groups, but the economy just overwhelmed every other issue."
Still, the 2008 campaign was remarkable for the ways religion - or religious figures - played such a prominent role. Obama was forced to sever ties with his fiery pastor of 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, for sermons that were deemed racist. McCain, in turn, was forced to return the endorsements of Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee and Ohio's Rod Parsley.
Obama and Biden both faced strong opposition from Catholic leaders over their support of abortion rights. One American cardinal, James Stafford, called Obama's election "apocalyptic" and a South Carolina Catholic priest told Obama supporters to head to confession before receiving Communion.
All of that, Lugo said, shows that voters want their politicians to be at least somewhat religious - but prefer to make up their own minds, without the interference of politically outspoken clergy.
"People still do not want religious institutions or religious leaders to weigh in on politics," said Lugo.
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