WWJD? Some Young Evangelicals Think They Know

The Obama campaign set out with an ambitious strategy a couple months back. It was a plan to dip into a voting demographic that had eluded any Democratic candidate since the early 80s. Many critics (including myself) suggested that the campaign was spinning its wheels in trying to attract Evangelicals as a voting block, but the campaign pressed on with the mindset, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’.

With nothing to lose there was little if anything to risk. Christian voters have been a group coveted and consistently landed by Republicans since Ronald Reagan successfully tied Christian and Republican values together in 1980. The emergence of Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson and the political movements such as the Christian Coalition added to the momentum, sealing the deal for Republicans on all levels in every election in the form of an active and dependable voting segment.

The Obama campaign has seized control of and utilized more successfully the use of the internet as a campaign weapon of sorts, tapping into the preferred form of communication of most Americans under the age of forty. As sites like MySpace and Face Book increased in popularity, the Obama campaign stayed in stride creating a campaign site that rivaled those and other social networking sites on its own merit. BarackObama.com would hold its own against most of networking offerings currently available even if there were no election. Conversely, John McCain’s website has been scrambling to simply stay current from a technology standpoint, and gave up on the idea of staying relevant and cutting-edge long ago.

Perhaps one thing that the insiders and advisors of the Obama campaign saw while the rest of us were focused elsewhere was how the GOP had begun to take the Christian vote for granted. They were counting those chickens long before they hatched in every election, playing each race in every state just as they had the ones previously. As this was happening, the demographics within the Christian community were shifting. Groups like Campus Crusade for Christ and other youth targeted ministries were successfully attracting younger and more independent voters. Many of these new believers were coming into the game already slightly jaded and suspicious of anyone or anything who would suggest that they should do something ‘just because’ or that ‘all real Christians vote Republican’.

As this movement was silently growing, a deeper, more cerebral concept was gaining momentum. The traditional pro-life movement was losing steam. The anti-abortion message was alienating itself with virtually no effort from pro-choice groups. The pro-life movement had begun to suffer a credibility issue as critics – especially young ones began to tie the concept of being pro-life to other life issues such as AIDS and poverty. The pro-life movement had seemingly painted itself into a corner of actually being pro-birth with little or no action plan for dealing with all the babies they save and the young mothers they had convinced to trust God’s plan for their lives.

Younger, single Christians are much more willing to buck tradition in favor of a plan that actually works. They are increasingly involved in causes that have traditionally fallen on the other side of the political fence from their parents.

Perhaps no candidate has done more to alienate young, Christian voters than George W. Bush. A professed Christian, Bush represents the Republican old guard to many young Christians. As Bethany Simmons, a twenty year-old Christian in Tustin, California told me, “Bush started two wars with no plan for ending them or any explanation why. His reasons turned out to be lies, and everything since then from him has been a lie or a cover-up.” Simmons is a college senior and intends to cast her first presidential vote for Obama in November. She continued, “as I grew up, it was pretty much preached to me that Christians vote Republican and sinners vote Democrat. It was like good vs. evil. As I got older I saw for myself that wasn’t true.” Simmons said that while she still hates the idea of abortion and feels like programs should be in place to protect the unborn, it is not a top five issue for her. This had created turmoil within her family for a while, although that tide seems to be changing as well. “My mom is actually leaning toward Obama too. I’m stoked. She looks at how so many Republicans are trying to misrepresent him and make him out to be Muslim or whatever and I think she is suspicious.”

In a July article on Bloomberg.com, Christian publisher, Cameron Strang, 32 said, ``I've never seen this before in the Christian community, ``they're staunchly morally conservative still, but they're saying maybe there's a different paradigm.''
Strang, publishes the Christian magazine, ‘Relevant’ and voted for Bush twice. He said that his readers seem to be “broadening the definition of pro- life'' to include the fight against poverty, war, disease, global warming and genocide -- as well as abortion. "What I'm hearing is that out of the two candidates, one of them is pro- life on five of the six" issues, he said of Obama. "And one is pro-life on one of the six." Strang admits, “[this election will be] the first time my mind hasn't been made up blindly that I'm going to vote Republican."

What the Obama campaign has accomplished by tapping into this voter base is similar to what they have done by contesting states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana – they are forcing the McCain campaign to spend money and divert resources in places that were once bright red, Republican strongholds. If there is one sign that the electoral map is changing, this is it. Conversely, Republicans are not making any traditionally Democratic states competitive.

While the Obama campaign hasn’t so much as entertained the idea that they might win the Evangelical vote in the fall, they seem poised to at least take a bite out of the Republican’s share. On the Obama campaign site is a section, ‘Evangelicals for Obama’ which has accumulated over 84,000 members nationwide. Their profiles discuss their faith and principles and why they have chosen to support the Illinois Senator as opposed to falling in step with what seems like modern Christian tradition. Clearly, many young Evangelicals are answering the ‘what would Jesus do?' question. Bethany Simmons answers that question by suggesting, “I’m pretty sure he would probably start by thinking for himself.”