Christengruppen: Wir haben die US-Wahl entschieden

--- Die Washington Post beleuchtet noch einmal dem US-Wahlausgang und widmet sich insbesondere der bislang noch nicht ausreichend beleuchteten Rolle, die amerikanische Kirchengemeinden darin gespielt hat: the untold story of the 2004 election, according to national religious leaders and grass-roots activists, is that evangelical Christian groups were often more aggressive and sometimes better organized on the ground than the Bush campaign. The White House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted with the movement's leaders in weekly conference calls. But in many respects, Christian activists led the charge that GOP operatives followed and capitalized upon. This was particularly true of the same-sex marriage issue. One of the most successful tactics of social conservatives -- the ballot referendums against same-sex marriage in 13 states -- bubbled up from below and initially met resistance from White House aides, Christian leaders said. In dozens of interviews since the election, grass-roots activists in Ohio, Michigan and Florida credited President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, with setting a clear goal that became a mantra among conservatives: To win, Bush had to draw 4 million more evangelicals to the polls than he did in 2000. But they also described a mobilization of evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics that took off under its own power. In battlegrounds such as Ohio, scores of clergy members attended legal sessions explaining how they could talk about the election from the pulpit. Hundreds of churches launched registration drives, thousands of churchgoers registered to vote, and millions of voter guides were distributed by Christian and antiabortion groups. Neben dem Themenbereich Homo-Ehe dürfte wohl auch der im "Krieg gegen den Terror" ständig aufgekochte religiöse Kulturkampf mit dem Islam eine wichtige Rolle bei der Mobilisierung der christlichen Gemeinden gespielt haben.