Obama Seeking Backing Of Young Evangelicals Despite His Support For Abortion Rights

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 18 Aug 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) is drawing the support of some young evangelical Christians, which is concerning some older evangelical leaders because of Obama's support for abortion rights, the Washington Times reports.

According to the Times, some evangelicals believe the Republican Party has "failed to deliver on the abortion issue" and are "weighing their electoral options." Douglas Groothuis, a philosophy professor at Denver Seminary, said more liberal, young evangelicals are experiencing "fetus fatigue" and want to "give up" on the issue. Tony Jones, leader of the liberal Christian group Emergent Village, added that liberal evangelicals have done what more conservative evangelicals "said to do" by electing certain politicians and getting "conservative justices appointed" and "nothing happened" to change abortion policies (Ward/Hallow, Washington Times, 8/15).

Joshua DuBois, former associate pastor of a small evangelical church and head of the Obama campaign's faith outreach initiative, said that he thinks some young evangelicals are shifting "issue focus," adding that he does not think "any young evangelical is ignoring the traditional values issues, but they are adding other issues, including poverty and war, and they are also looking at integrity and family" (Williams Thompson, Washington Post, 8/15).

The Rev. Rick Warren -- pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. -- recently said that although younger evangelicals are "more pro-life than their parents," but they are "anti-religious right," adding that "[n]obody can tell what direction they're going to go in." D.A. Carson, an evangelical theologian and scholar, added that younger evangelicals are "more flexible today and much less shaped by one or two ideological touchstones."

A campaign aimed at convincing evangelicals to consider Democrats' positions on poverty, the environment, human rights and the fight against HIV/AIDS also could lead more younger evangelicals to support Obama, the Times reports. In addition, the Democratic Party Platform Committee has recommended a new platform on abortion-related issues (Washington Times, 8/15).

The platform states that the party "strongly supports a woman's decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and postnatal health care, parenting skills, income support and caring adoption programs," Bloomberg reports. Joel Hunter, a pastor in Florida who helped develop the language for the new platform, said the new language "will win over" voters who are "looking for an excuse to vote for Obama," adding, "They just needed one signal that, if I vote for him, more babies can be saved than if we keep wrangling over whether Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned." The platform, which also is supported by some abortion-rights groups, says that the party "strongly and unequivocally" supports Roe and opposes any efforts to "weaken or undermine" the ruling (Jensen, Bloomberg, 8/14).

Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Saturday are expected to participate in an evangelical conference at Saddleback Church, USA Today reports. Warren is expected to interview the candidates separately about the presidency, the Constitution and other issues, including abortion. Bob Heckman, who is in charge of outreach to conservative groups for McCain, said that McCain's relationship with evangelicals is "good" and will improve as more voters learn about McCain's opposition to abortion rights (Jackson/Moore, USA Today, 8/15).

Opinion Piece

The language changes in the Democratic Party platform "offer a pointless embrace of maternity to soften the edges of the party's position on abortion," Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi writes in an opinion piece. However, nothing has "changed policywise on the issue" and Obama's "stance" on abortion has not "softened," Harsanyi adds.

He asks whether voters are "so breathtakingly dim-witted that they will pivot on such an important issue because of a transparently dim platform addendum supporting human procreation," adding that although the "wide spectrum of positions on abortion can be influenced by deep moral, religious, ideological and personal convictions," the "divide" is and "should be clear" politically. Harsanyi concludes that "abortion isn't energy policy," and people's minds cannot be changed by an "ode to Mommy Power" (Harsanyi, Denver Post, 8/15).

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