General Wesley Clark says he is a Methodist turned Baptist turned Catholic who attends a Presbyterian church. Congressman Richard Gephardt says his religion is “to care about the poor first.” Howard Dean, who has criticized the mixing of religion and politics, now promises to talk about Jesus when he campaigns in the South.
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said he believes God has told him President Bush will be re-elected in a “blowout election” this fall.
“I think George Bush is going to win in a walk,” Robertson predicted on The 700 Club program on his Christian Broadcasting Network on January 2. “I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It’s shaping up that way.”
Robert A. Lee, the pastor of the First Congregational Church (UCC) in Burlington, Vermont, says that Howard Dean is a supportive member “with strong principled views.”
A member since 1982, Dean reflected his beliefs when as governor he signed the “politically risky” civil union legislation giving same-sex couples rights equal to those of heterosexuals, Lee told United Church News, the denominational magazine, in September.
Although mainline Protestants have traditionally voted Republican and their declining numbers have supposedly reduced their impact on elections, a political scientist who has studied church influence in politics says that mainliners will be important “swing voters” in the 2004 national elections.
The result was hardly a surprise, noted Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. A 2004 presidential straw poll conducted at MPAC’s annual convention showed President George W. Bush trailing four Democratic contenders, led by Howard Dean, largely because of the former Vermont governor’s staunch criticism of the war in Iraq.