Democrats' White House hopefuls call on the Almighty

Democrats' White House hopefuls call on the Almighty
By Edward Luce
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: June 6 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 6 2007 03:00


An unusual trend is emerging in the 2008 presidential election campaign: Democrats seem happier talking about God than Republicans.

Whether it is because Mitt Romney is a Mormon, which is off-putting to many evangelicals, or because Rudy Giuliani (a Catholic) is on his third marriage and supports abortion rights, or because John McCain is an Episcopalian (Anglican) and views faith as a private matter, the three Republican frontrunners see little percentage in bringing God into the discussion.

In contrast, the leading Democrats revelled in the chance to discuss their beliefs at a debate on "faith, values and poverty" hosted by Sojourners, a centre-left evangelical group, in Washington on Monday night.

The political logic is clear. Roughly a quarter of Americans describe themselves as evangelical - born again - Christians, of whom 78 per cent voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 election against 21 per cent for the Democrats' John Kerry.

Most of the remainder of the US electorate describe themselves as Christian believers in one form or another. According to the Pew Research Centre's forum on religion and public life, only 26 per cent of Americans think their political leaders express personal religious beliefs "too much". Most of the rest wanted more about God from their elected representatives.

"I can tell you that it is a part of my daily prayer to ask the Lord to give me the strength to see the difference between what I want to do and what he wants me to do," John Edwards, who is a Baptist and is running third in the Democratic presidential stakes, told the audience of 1,500 left-leaning evangelicals. "Not only my faith but also prayer has played a huge role in my life. It does every single day. It's what gives me the strength to keep going."

Barack Obama, the title of whose recent book, The Audacity of Hope, was borrowed from his favourite pastor in Chicago, was equally forthcoming about his faith. Quoting Abraham Lincoln's famous dictum about asking whether you were on God's side and not whether God was on yours, he said: "Are we following His dictates? Are we advancing the causes of justice and freedom? Are we our brother's keeper, our sister's keeper? That's how I measure whether what we are doing is right."

In response to a question about Mr Bush's pre-occupation with "evil", Mr Obama, who belongs to the United Church of Christ, argued there was evil in the world.

Of the three, Hillary Clinton, whose husband, Bill Clinton, held regular prayer meetings in the White House, was the most reticent about advertising her personal beliefs. A United Methodist, Mrs Clinton admitted that she prayed but surmised that there was a lot of "rolling of eyes" from God given the "trivial and self-serving" requests her prayers entailed.

"I take my faith personally and seriously," she said. "I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves . . . so a lot of the talk about faith doesn't come naturally to me," she said.

In contrast, however, to the traditional Republican line, all three resisted taking hellfire stances on issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Mrs Clinton reiterated her view that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" - emphasising "rare". Mr Edwards argued that removing poverty and providing healthcare were overriding Christian concerns.

And Mr Obama drew huge applause when he urged chief executives to consider the moral implications of the fact that many of them are paid more in a single day than the average worker receives in a year.