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Churchs role in gop win { November 8 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/08/MNG4K9NO9I1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/08/MNG4K9NO9I1.DTL
A church's role in GOP's win
Evangelicals take moral values message to heart
- Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, November 8, 2004
Thousands of members of a satisfied congregation returned Sunday to Concord's Calvary Temple, a large evangelical church with sweeping views of Contra Costa County and the Delta -- and an even clearer picture of why President Bush was re-elected.
"Moral values," said Priscilla Campos of Antioch after listening to pastor Fred Franks' sermon on the Sixth Commandment, which included a section equating abortion with murder.
"You had a split of moral beliefs," said another parishioner and Bush voter, Terry Hamblin of Pittsburg, citing his opposition to abortion and same- sex marriage.
Then there was Frances Wilson of Pittsburg.
"I just felt like we needed to get out of Iraq," she said. She added that she was one of the few members of the Pentecostal church -- one of the Bay Area's largest evangelical, missionary churches -- who voted for Sen. John Kerry.
A visit to Calvary Temple bolstered the conclusions of exit polls and many political experts and operatives. Roughly 26 million evangelicals -- not "NASCAR dads" or Howard Stern listeners -- are seen as the election's trump constituency, going from pews to polls in record numbers to keep a man they see as a humble born-again Christian in office.
More than 90 percent of voters who said religious convictions in a leader were important voted for Bush, according to exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and a group of television news networks. Moral values were cited as the top issue for 22 percent of voters, beating out the Iraq war; 80 percent of those voters said they supported Bush.
Even Roman Catholics narrowly favored Bush over the Catholic Kerry, a turnaround for Bush from 2000.
The impact of conservative churchgoers, though, was anything but a surprise in the Calvary Temple congregation, a rare "red" community in the largely liberal Bay Area. Though Contra Costa County has its conservative enclaves, 62 percent of its voters chose Kerry.
In between three services Sunday, parishioners said increased political chatter in Christian media -- not to mention the success of faith-oriented television shows, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and the "Left Behind" book series -- underscored many Christians' belief that America is threatened at its moral core.
"There's such a decline of moral values," said Rebecca Garcia, an Antioch teacher and real estate agent. "The pushing of gay rights, abortion -- it's not to say that I don't like homosexuals. I don't like their sin."
"War is war no matter what," Hamblin, a consultant for Bank of America, said of the invasion of Iraq. "But when it comes to the moral values, that is what can destroy our country."
Hamblin's wife, and others, called Kerry's focus on his childhood as an altar boy and his appearances at churches political opportunism.
"I did not see the faith in him," said Nancy Hamblin, a 60-year-old retired family counselor. "I saw that he was realizing there was a lot of religious people out there."
Many at the church said Bush's acknowledgment of his faith -- his statements that he asks God for wisdom in leading the nation, and his explicit use of scriptural terms -- was critical.
"Before I voted for him, I was waiting for him to say, 'My Lord Jesus Christ,' " said John Romero, a 66-year-old retired custodian from Bay Point.
"He's putting God first," added Sol Shimmel, 49, a Martinez preschool teacher. "There has to be someone more powerful we can depend on."
Shimmel was one of many parishioners to say she was aided in her choice by a church handout titled "California Voter's Guide," published by the Traditional Values Coalition. Though it is described as nonpartisan, it casts Bush as being on the correct side of abortion, same-sex marriage, tax cuts and freedom of religious expression.
"That made me decide who I'm going to vote for," Shimmel said.
But Wilson, a 57-year-old legal assistant from Pittsburg, said she believed conservative churches and pastors -- who cannot endorse candidates under their nonprofit status -- had too much influence in Bush's re-election.
"I was disappointed that so many pastors influenced parishioners to vote for Bush solely on the abortion issue," she said. "Whether you say it or imply it, you're making a statement."
Though she is pro-choice and voted for stem-cell research funding, Wilson agreed with most of her fellow churchgoers on one issue: same-sex marriage. "I can't go with that," she said.
While mixed feelings were expressed on stem-cell research -- Rob Thez, a 39-year-old salesman from Pittsburg, said he voted for the research and for Kerry because a family member has Parkinson's disease -- church members appeared to be nearly unified on same-sex marriage.
The parishioners spoke ardently against same-sex marriages on the same day that Bush political aide Karl Rove said the president will continue fighting for a constitutional amendment banning them. Those at Calvary Temple said the Bible precludes homosexuality and that the ideal family environment for children features a father and a mother.
"I'm not sure in the long run what kind of threat it could be," said Edith Van Horn, a 76-year-old Concord retiree. "But I'd rather err to the right."
On abortion, she said, "I consider it murder. There you go. You can see I'm going to have to go in one direction."
E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
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