Ricardo B. Brazziell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Geno Hildebrandt, pastor of Hope Chapel in North Austin, says the Republican Party has taken his vote for granted. 'I would not be tepidly pro-Obama unless I was pretty fed up with what is presented to me on the other side and by the other ticket,' he says.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
In past presidential elections, Geno Hildebrandt usually voted Republican, driven in part by his opposition to abortion.
But this year, the pastor of Hope Chapel in North Austin is reconsidering what it means to be pro-life and breaking ranks with his conservative Christian peers. He said he's voting for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate known for his liberal support of abortion rights.
"For me politically, I think it's difficult in the extreme," said Hildebrandt, 53, who describes himself as a charismatic and theologically conservative Christian. "I would not be tepidly pro-Obama unless I was pretty fed up with what is presented to me on the other side and by the other ticket."
For too long, Hildebrandt said, the Republican Party has taken his vote for granted, believing that its stance against abortion will keep conservative Christians on its side. Among his close friends, Hildebrandt is the lone Obama voter. And he's gotten an earful from folks who think he's abandoning his convictions about protecting unborn children.
But Hildebrandt's views are more readily accepted by a growing number of younger evangelicals who, while also opposed to abortion, are mapping out a broader Christian agenda that includes concerns about poverty, war and the environment.Abortion hasn't disappeared from the list. It's just no longer a deal breaker for some evangelicals.
And that means they're not automatically voting for the anti-abortion candidate, something the GOP has been able to count on in previous elections.
White evangelicals have been crucial to GOP presidential candidates in recent elections. They cast nearly one-fourth of all votes in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and President Bush won 68 percent of their votes in 2000 and 78 percent in 2004, according to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press.
According to a survey released by the nonprofit group Faith in Public Life, 93 percent of African American Protestants planned to vote for Obama in November.
But white evangelicals aren't jumping to Obama's side in great numbers. Overall, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain tops Obama by a wide margin among white evangelicals — 68 percent to 25 percent — according to the Faith in Public Life report, which surveyed voters in August and September and noted that Democrat John Kerry captured about 21 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2004.
But a poll conducted in September for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, a PBS television program, showed younger evangelicals (ages 18 to 29) were less likely to vote for McCain than their elders were. Sixty-two percent of evangelicals younger than 30 planned to vote for McCain, compared with 73 percent over 30, according to the poll.
According to the Faith in Public Life survey, younger evangelicals are more likely than their elders to support bigger government with more services and show more support for diplomacy versus military strength abroad.
In a telephone press conference following the release of Faith in Public Life's poll, scholars and culture watchers weighed in on how this shift might show up on Election Day. D. Michael Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University who interviewed thousands of evangelicals for his book "Faith in the Halls of Power," said the broadening of the issues that matter to Christians will distinguish this election from 2004.
"Younger believers — including Catholics and white evangelicals — are significantly more supportive of bigger government and expanding diplomatic efforts abroad," he said, noting that they are embracing the Gospel's call to help the poor, serve as peacemakers and be good stewards of the earth. "It's not surprising, therefore, that they are supporting some of the ideas put forward by the Democrats in 2008. It may very well be that in this election, the conventional wisdom about the 'values voters' — who they are and what they want — gets turned on its head."
Hildebrandt is particularly upset with what he sees as a mishandled prosecution of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's "go-it-alone" approach to potential threats in Iran and North Korea and a "deregulated market allowing predatory practices which injure the middle class."
Dan Davis, a longtime nondenominational church leader, said he has seen this shift in views recently in Austin. He helped start the Pastors in Covenant in Austin, a group of ministers from different racial and denominational backgrounds. There's a distinct generational shift among evangelicals on issues such as the environment and the war, he said.
Even at 71, Davis said he has reevaluated his reasons for voting for a candidate and grappled with the idea that being pro-life involves more than one's stance on abortion. It's a revelation that he said has caused some uncomfortable moments with fellow Christians who don't understand how Davis could criticize the Republican party on moral issues or even consider voting for a Democrat.
"In a couple of (discussions), I've felt our friendship is going to be at stake," said Davis, who declined to say for whom he will vote on Nov. 4. "This guy thinks I've fallen out of a tree ... that I would dare talk about that."
Mark Proeger, 36, who pastors college students at Hope Chapel, said he has a harder time stomaching the idea of his fellow evangelicals casting their ballot for a candidate who has liberally supported abortion rights.
He sees abortion as "the most significant issue facing America ... because any nation that refuses to protect their most innocent and most helpless is in a very precarious place morally and ethically."
He asks his Obama-supporting friends, "What does it mean to be pro-life if you're not going to vote pro-life?"
Courtney Carlson, a 31-year-old minister to college students and young professionals at Hillcrest Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in North Austin, opposes abortion but said she has a broader set of Christian concerns that will inform her vote.
"Jesus is constantly talking about taking care of the poor, taking care of 'the least of these,' " she said.
Carlson said she thinks Obama's platform better reflects the Gospel. Her political leanings put her in the minority at her church, but she said Hillcrest leaders and members are respectful of her views.
Tom Goodman, the church's senior pastor, knows there are plenty of other evangelicals energized by Obama. He posted this advice on his blog to supporters: Make sure the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party know you aren't happy with their positions on abortion. Join Democrats for Life of America. And, if Obama's elected, watch him closely on the abortion issue.
"If you help put Obama in the White House and he proceeds to ignore your pro-life convictions until he needs your vote in the next election, refuse to give it to him," Goodman wrote.
The fact that these conversations are happening at all is a healthy sign, said Don Vanderslice, pastor of Mosaic, a congregation that draws people in their 20s and 30s to a warehouse sanctuary on Airport Boulevard.
Most of the members of Mosaic, many of whom identify themselves as "pro-life evangelicals," appear to be voting for Obama, Vanderslice said. Then again, he noted, this is left-leaning Austin. Their evangelical peers in Dallas and other cities don't necessarily share their views.
Vanderslice, who grew up in a conservative church in Dallas, said some of his friends and family members have tried to argue that Obama is a secret Muslim or at least isn't a good Christian. And his fellow pastor, Sam Myrick, 28, encounters anti-Obama rants from old friends from his Baptist college every time he logs onto his Facebook account.
They are often shocked to learn that Myrick could back a candidate who supports abortion rights.
But as Myrick sees it, "neither candidate will ever line up 100 percent with the Gospel."
Myrick and Vanderslice live in a struggling neighborhood, ride their bikes instead of drive and create after-school activities for low-income children, all part of what they see as championing life. They also support Obama.
Hildebrandt said he also sees efforts like theirs as important. But he said the abortion issue will still stick in his throat when he votes Nov. 4.
"It's a very difficult thing to come to," Hildebrandt said. "But I feel abandoned by what I would have considered Bush's sell on compassionate conservatism."
With that in mind, Hildebrandt said that if Obama is elected, he'll be watching his policies just as closely.
eflynn@statesman.com; 445-3812
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