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 Evangelicals are expected to account for about 40% of the Republican vote on Tuesday's primary in Florida. Florida Evangelicals a different breed of voter than brethren in Iowa, South CarolinaBy John Sepulvado, CNN (CNN) – Conservative Christian activist Ralph Reed has called the Bible Belt home for decades, but he grew up in Miami in the 1970s, when the city was emerging as a diverse megalopolis. Among his middle school friends were Jews, Catholics and Methodists. Then, at age 15, Reed's family relocated to the sleepy mountain town of Toccoa, Georgia, so his dad, a doctor, could take a better-paying job. “It was very conservative,” says Reed, who now lives outside Atlanta. “At first – as would be true of any 15-year-old – I didn’t like it. I think it was a culture shock.” Ultimately, the mostly evangelical residents of Toccoa shaped Reed’s faith, helping lead him to Jesus in his 20s. But in terms of his faith-based organizing, the well-known activist drew more on his experiences in hyper-diverse Miami. "Later on in life, when I became a leader in the Christian Coalition, I had a greater appreciation [for] ethnic and religious diversification,” Reed says. That could be good news for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is looking to regain momentum from chief rival Newt Gingrich, after the former speaker’s upset in South Carolina, in Florida’s Tuesday primary. There are signs that Florida’s evangelical voters may be more forgiving of Romney’s past social liberalism than their Iowa and South Carolina brethren – and more willing to support a Mormon candidate. “I think Romney could do well in Florida,” Reed says. A more centrist evangelicalism As a percentage of GOP voters, there are fewer evangelicals in Florida compared to South Carolina and Iowa, where Rick Santorum won the presidential caucuses, according to CNN exit polls from 2008. In that year, evangelicals accounted for 40% of Republican primary voters in Florida, compared to 60% in the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primaries. And compared to those other early primary states, Florida is much more religiously diverse. In the 2008 primary there, Catholics were nearly a third of the Republican vote, with other kinds of Christians, Jews and those with no religious affiliation each claiming a chunk of the vote. Still, evangelical Christians claim a bigger share of the Florida Republican vote than any other religious tradition. There also are signs they may be more tolerant of a Mormon candidate than born-again Christians in the Bible Belt and Midwest. In the South Carolina primary, Romney claimed 22% of the evangelical vote, compared to 44% for Gingrich, according to CNN exit polls. Florida’s evangelicals are “more open” to the idea of a Mormon in the White House, according to Orlando area pastor Joel C. Hunter. “Our nature, of being a fairly mobile state, with a lot of tourism and a lot of transcultural and transnational interaction really makes us boundary spanning, rather than sticking to our own affinity groups,” Hunter says. He leads a congregation of 15,000 at Northland, a Church Distributed, a nondenominational megachurch of the kind that are more popular in Florida than in Iowa or South Carolina. “For any independent church, you’re going to be open – necessarily open – to non-ready made boundaries, open to other religious groups,” Hunter says. “You’ll be more likely to partner with groups that aren’t necessarily like your own.” The pastor cites his church’s partnerships with local synagogues and mosques to help local homeless children. For Hunter, teaming up with different religious traditions follows the example of Jesus. “Jesus talked to the people, the religious leaders others wouldn’t talk to,” he says. “As an evangelical, I should be ready to talk to a lot of people that aren’t like myself, because that’s what I see in the life of Christ, and I’m looking to build relationships.” Mark I. Pinsky, the Florida-based author of "A Jew Among Evangelicals," says there are other key differences between evangelicals in Florida and those in Iowa and South Carolina. “In Iowa,” Pinsky says, “they tend to be rural and older. In South Carolina, they tend to be more fundamentalist, and more likely to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention,” a denomination that isn’t shy about pointing out theological differences with Mormonism. Pinsky says Florida evangelicals, especially in the central part of the state, are more likely to have Mormons as neighbors, compared to their brethren in South Carolina and Iowa. “Nondenominational evangelicals are less likely to demonize someone who is a real person,” Pinsky says. Less Preaching, More Teaching Even in smaller Baptist churches in Florida’s Panhandle, there are “notable differences” with Christians in more historically evangelical parts of the country, according to pastor Curtis Clark. “There’s still a lot of yelling from the pulpit in South Carolina,” says Clark, who leads a congregation of 2,500 at Thomasville Road Baptist Church in Tallahassee. Clark says his congregation is split between Republicans and Democrats, that almost all the adults have college degrees and that the parishioners want to be led, not yelled at. “I try and teach, try and encourage,” Clark says. “Florida evangelicals are a little bit more educated, and have a broader experience.” Census figures from 2010 show Florida has a slightly greater share of college graduates than South Carolina. Both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns are reaching out to evangelicals to quell concerns about their candidacies. Both campaigns held conference calls with influential conservative religious leaders last week, discussing religion, personal and policy decisions. Many evangelicals have expressed concern about Romney’s past support for abortion rights and gay rights and over Gingrich’s failed marriages. But Romney doesn’t need to win big among evangelicals to take Florida, Reed says. Because evangelicals make up a smaller portion of Republican voters, Reed says Romney only needs to win a sizeable share of their support. “If Romney gets a third of evangelical voters” Reed says, “he wins the primary.” While Romney skipped meeting with some evangelical leaders in South Carolina, including officials at Bob Jones University, his campaign has started more aggressively courting pastors and religious community networks in Florida. The campaign has participated in multiple conference calls with religious leaders and activists. “In part, I think [the Romney campaign is] more open to outreach by virtue of the Florida demographic,” Reed says. That suggests the Romney camp suspects Florida’s evangelicals will be more open to his candidacy than other evangelicals in the primary states so far. soundoff (1,829 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next »Post a comment
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Science builds worlds while religion destroys it.
God gave science to mankind
Too bad he stopped short of giving common sense to his followers!
just sayin – Copernicus might disagree with you on that. He was theaten with torture for suggesting that the earth wasn't the center of the universe.
Anything that threatens a religion's power over it's people must be stamped out. It's alway been that way, and will always be that way.
@Fair Tax
That's right. And do you know why? It's because it is not a democracy with God. It has nothing to do with religion and power, but right and wrong. God will only accept right. You don't get to vote on that.
George – so Copernicus was "wrong", and that's why the church threatened him.
Well, at least well have Obama for 4 more years while we figure this out.
justlyin'! There you are! When are you going to answer the questions I asked you?
Religion is child abuse.
Christians teach their children that they are going to suffer unspeakable pain in hell when they die.
Then, have their children pray that if they die in their sleep they pray that god will take their soul.
It's like their living Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddie Kruger waiting for them if they fall asleep.
Christianity needs the USA. It's one of the last hold-out countries. But once the population of Muslims grows in North America, as it is now, Christianity will gradually be displaced.
And then we'll have the GOP and Democratic leaders sucking up to the Muslims. It really is quite pathetic.
Christianity, Islam, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. One delusional belief in an invisible sky wizard is no more or less ridiculous than a delusional belief in any other invisible sky wizard.
Is this an ad for jesus?
Yes, PLUS, if you order right now, you'll get 2 Jesi for the price of one. Give one as a gift for Hanauka.
Haha .. I want two "jesi" for the price of one! Nice wordage!
Fair Tax Task Force,
and they'd most likely be touting it as a "free gift" too!
Mitt Romney is going to always be loosing about 25% of the vote he could be getting, according to Gallop, due to being a Mormon. If he were a Christian, he would have won the nomination last time around.
You just gotta love evangelicals that will reject a faithful mormon in favor of a serial cheating converted christian.
I guess this makes sense in some alternative universe.
From their point of view, a bad Christian is better than a good heretic.
Hate to inform you all, he's not a Christian anymore. He's Catholic. So yes they are voting for a dishonest non-christian because they don't want to vote for an honest non-christian.
What right does a Mormon have to speak for Jewish people? There should be a "none of the above" selection on the Republican ballot. They are all destroyers of everything the PEOPLE have and want to keep. They are liars who will say anything to appease whatever crowd is before them. Not one is a leader. Not one can be trusted. Run the other way.
George Wrote:
Your government I assume the the government of the United States of America which is a majority Christian country. We will most certainly not leave your government alone because it is also our government and we want to see it get back to God.
With people like this I can easily see the history of Germany in 1930s repeating itself in the United States. Who's going to stop it. Certainly not god, because god is in favor of it. Athiests?, Nope, they'll be rounded up into concentration camps for extermination.
The moment you brought up Nazi Germany and concentration camps, you lost the argument.
Religion is like a p e n i s.
It's nice to have one
It's nice to be proud of it
It is NOT okay to whip it out in public and wave it around, and
It is NOT okay to cram it down someone else's throat without permission.
Well said.
This is part of the reason I dont like Christians - the fact that they elect someone soley based on their "faith" is absurd - JUST PICK THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB - religion is a cancer in this country and over the years has caused more harm than good, anybody disputing that has "faith"
And the reason that I don't like atheists is because they will not see that the best person for the job is a Christian.
No different then any other religion. People tend to select the same people that belong to their club.
George – it is clear that you were born about 500 years too late.
The real cancer in America is the lack of faith on God. America became a great nations in worshiping God and is declining as we move away.
@George – Ya, that's exactly what the country should require from a person to run the most powerful country on earth... a person who will "drive the ship" with their eyes closed with their arms in the air channeling an imaginary voice in their head. That may be cool for you in your twisted, linear and backward theocratic existence... but for the rest of us... well... let some intelligent people make the decisions as to how the country will be workable for ALL, not just a few religious folk who only favor their own kind.
@Thomas
Exactly! This is what I've been saying all along.
Thomas – which god, YOUR god, or will any god do?
@Jonesey
Religious people are not stupid. Some of the greatest minds are/were religious. You just don't like the fact that Christian leaders would enforce morality.
George and Thomas: Go move to Afghanistan or some other country where religion is so engrained that science is crowded out. All the 3rd world countries are religious. Just check out some of the African ones. See what they contributed to the world.
Seriously. Move there. We don't need you.
@George – Morality? LMFAO. I have friends of all nature... Christians, LGBT, Hetero, Muslims, Atheists, and Buddhists. Believe me when I tell you Christians are some of the most immoral people I know. They operate their lives being sinners during the week, only to feel confident they will be forgiven on Sunday. I'm sure even Hitler asked for forgiveness before he did himself in "just to be sure." Now that's the morality of religion!!!
@Thomas – Just so you have your facts straight... the United States was founded on the freedom of ALL religions, not just Christianity. Learn it, live it.
I agree.. Proof of their dishonesty, they don't like the loving family man Obama who also want everyone to have health care so they don't have to suffer. And the christians are against this man?
Hate to break it to you George, the only Christians left in this race are Ron Paul and Obama. Are you telling me that you are voting for either of them because they both MUST be the best person for the job? That's your logic?
It must be nice to have a simple view of the world like this.
In George's "absolute morals come from The Babble" world, Newt is a christian worthy of his vote.
hotairace is a butt-in canadian as such his opinion is not worth dog crap to American politics. Not to mention he can't even spell the text he is demeaning. Go pound salt hot air we don't need you here. There's your sign
Sciene flies you to the moon,
Religion flies you into buildings.
Did you think that up all by yourself or did you have help?
It's not mine, I just don't know who the author is, so I can't credit it. It's true though, isn't it?
Science is a gift God gave mankind
Religion is assorted beliefs that man put in place
Truth is found in God not in religion
Religion established the first universities so that eventually you could fly to the moon.
so very true - all religions are bad
Google THE SECRET WORLD OF MORMONISM.
Google how to go to college and learn how to use your brain instead of voting for who your daddy tells you to vote for.
Won't the Cruel Crux Clan ever go away?
These people are still in the Stone Age like the Druids.....cults have always been with cultures....they come and go....Christianity used to be a cult in its time ( still is...) but next year there might be something "new" for the folks that like to have others do their thinking for them....not sure what that appeal is ......why wouldn't you want to make your own decisions about your life and your family.....
It never ceases to amaze me how atheists think that they are better because they claim to think for themselves. Such arrogance. And I can't tell you how many atheists just parrot what Hitchens and other atheist writers have said. Thinking for themselves ... yeah, right.
George – athiests don't give a rat's a s s what you believe. They just want religious zealots to stop cramming religion down their throats and into a secular government.
@George – All religions are arrogant. Their entire MO is to favor those who subscribe to that particular sect... and to minimalize and oppress any other belief systems, or behavior. Just ask the LGBT community about the "love" shown to them by Christianity. The founding fathers were nothing short of Atheists because they knew how destructive religion is to society. Atheism? It's a rejection of the presence of dieties. It's not arrogance. It's a belief that people should cohabitate without their conduct toward others being gauged by the fear of some made up fairy tale.
@Fair Tax
Secularism is the biggest, and I mean the BIGGEST, threat to America today.
@Jonesey
Hom.os.exuality is sin. Pure and simple. Just as ad.ultery and forn.ication. It is wrong, disgusting and filthy.
George – ah, the truth begins to emerge. It's not religion, is some ephemeral "socialism".
In American society of 2012, just what IS socialism George?
@George – Case and point. We are in the year 2012. Get with the program.
George – so used to wing nuts spouting about "socialism" I misread "secularism."
So what's wrong with secularism? Everyone MUST believe like you do? Is that it? How far will you go to force that?
Will you torture people into believing? Maybe burn non-believers at the stake? Maybe build some gas chambers?
@George – Sin, sin, sin... it's all focused around the concept of sin and the bible. Fear, fear, fear. Totally laughable. But feel free to continue with your dribble.
@Fair Tax
Some of us conservative Christians are fighting for a Christian Amendment to the Const.itution in order to combat secularism.
@Jonesey
Laugh all you want. There are plenty of people laughing now, but they won't be laughing when they are burning in hell. And yes, it is about sin.
Good one, George. You're almost convincing-and there are a few nuts out there who are just as crazy as you're pretending to be. Thanks for showing us we should definitely vote Democrat.
If the prerequisite to going to hell is being tolerant of all people, not just a few who base their conduct toward others based on divisiveness through religious inclusion, then bring it on. I would rather go to hell than have an ugly intolerant soul such as yourself.
People should not believe everything, maybe not anything, George says. He is on record saying he would vote for Newt, a known adulterer and fornicator.
@Jonesey
Be careful. You might just get your wish. Do you have no notion of how horrible hell is? If you doused yourself in gasoline and lit yourself on fire, it would be just a taste of what you will suffer for eternity. For eternity ... can you comprehend that? I can't. But imagine endless agony forever.
It would be almost as bad as being married to you.
George, people like you are actually the biggest threat to this country. People who claim to be God's people but want nothing to do with helping the poor. People who claim to be God's people but don't want everyone to have health insurance. People who claim to be God's people but vote for candidates who increase taxes on the middle class but lower the capital gains tax so the rich can be taxes less.
People like you are the problem. Jesus would be ashamed of you.
As a senior citizen I shake my head at how the evangelical's have taken over our elections and country. I remember my late father wore a cross around his neck as a necklace, but he cheated on my mother for years. If someone says they are an evangelical, I watch my back and wallet.
Taken over??? You mean, if a person is an evangelical Christian they shouldn't be able to vote or rally behind a candidate? Wearing a cross does not make a person a Christian. Sitting in church every week doesn't either. When a person accepts the forgiveness that is offered by Jesus Christ and is changed from the inside out, then they are what the Bible calls a Christian.
Mom, Lynn is right
The evangelicals are showing themselves to be nothing but hippocrates. A bunch of Jimmy Swaggarts.
@George
If you want to call "good" a guy that built an eternal torture chamber, then that's your business. Everybody else calls that behavior disgusting and beyond any terrorism we can imagine. Why do you worship a terrorist?
We build death chambers for convicted murderers. Why? Because that is justice. Not terrorism.
@George – I guess you feel the same for "convicted" murderers who actually turn out to be innocent due to flaws in the justice system?
Death is a one time event. Your god could do anything with unbelievers, yet he choses eternal torture. He chose the most disgusting option anyone could imagine. And you like it. Deal with it.
@Jonesey
There are no innocents in hell.
@momoya
That's just the way it is. No Christian likes it; that's why we are trying to save souls.
Hitler built death chambers for the Jews. Why, because religion was a useful tool to control the masses.
Hitler's death chambers were, to him, a convenient way to solve the Jewish Question.
@DeepNorth
Do you understand how science works? You do realize that when we look at very distant stars, we ARE looking back in time. The scientific data shows a picture that most fits with a big bang sort of event. In fact, most christians herald this science because they think it supports their viewpoint of creation.
God created it that way just to test your faith.
That's true, but only because the truth has a way of forcing its way into the minds of a free people, regardless of the religious beliefs. Only those of truly primitive sects still attempt denial.
momoya,
You do understand that scientists will never, ever know "for certain" anything science "proves". It's all theory. Like the Big Bang theory.
So what, Mom?
By your logic Mom, why do you think you know that your god created this earth, how are you sure?
Religion is the most destructive force ever conceived by man. More than nuclear weapons or all of the bombs and weapons ever built.
Virtually every war, and every conflict has been because of religion, or had religion as an important element.
You really know very little about history then. Good try though.
Todd – any facts to back up your statement, or is it just a matter of "faith"?
Todd – Your response is laughable... just like your so-called "good book" which was so out of touch at one point that it needed to be revised in order to be more "human" friendly. Take away religion, you eliminate wars. Fact.
Todd – name ONE major international conflict that did not have relgion as at least an element of control of the population in it.
WWII?
The Crusades?
The current war on terrorism?
Northern Ireland?
The entire middle ages was all about wars pushing someone's religion on other people?
The war waged by Vietnam against the Khmer Rouge was inspiring.