Christians Can't Vote For Democrats

And other things I heard while knocking rural doors...

I was raised a Southern Baptist. I was saved several times to make sure it stuck — the altar call was too dramatic for me to refuse as a young person. I was baptized twice…both times in a creek. I have memorized verses, can recite all of the stories, and have read the entire book. So, when I knocked doors as a Democratic candidate in a rural district, I was dumbfounded by so many folks who claimed they couldn’t vote for me because they were Christian.

I was shocked the first time I heard it. A little annoyed when I heard it for the 10th time. And kind of outraged by the 20th time. I didn’t understand where this refrain had come from, but it was in contrast to my Bible-believing great-grandparents who were practicing Primitive Baptists. They were also FDR, Truman, Carter, and Clinton voters. They even had a concrete donkey in their front yard in Arkansas.

My sister and I with our great-grandparents in their garden. Branch, Arkansas, 1978.

My great-grandparents were Lutheran and Southern Baptists and they all voted for FDR and for Democrats all the way through Jimmy Carter’s first run. But, the Baptist sect of my family voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980. The Lutheran sect still voted Carter and there began a divide that I can still see in my family and community. The Evangelical wing started down a path of voting against their self-interest and it hasn’t stopped. They are aligned with billionaires and don’t even know it.

There is an issue that comes up over and over again in politics: Why do poor folks vote for Republican politicians who do not support them or their communities? Religion plays a massive role which some have coincided to go along with other social issues. The Libertarians have made a deal with the Evangelical right to create decades of rural folks who vote in contrast to their self-interest — they merged anti-government policies with religion. What are the issues they use to accomplish this?

Abortion. Guns. School prayer. LGBTQ issues.

Abortion came up at many doors in my district. As someone who grew up in the church in the 80s and 90s, it’s a weird thing to watch folks morph into Christian Republicans. I have no memory of sermons meant to demonize abortion. I do not remember any talk of the procedure. Now, I’m positive there were strong feelings about abortion, but no sermons. I think it was kind of an unspoken thing — “we don’t like it, but it’s not really our business.”

I knew a few girls in high school who drove to Little Rock for an abortion, but we all acted like we didn’t know and these girls went on to graduate high school and most of them college. At least one is still in the church and is vehemently anti-choice, which I find repulsive. She had choice and now slams the door to women and girls in her exact position and she uses her religion as cover. She has also become a Trump supporter and posts memes and vitriol against Democrats while saying that her religion demands it. Her religion does not demand it. Not at all. Abortion is never mentioned in the Bible except to give ways to procure one. It isn’t logical or Biblical. It’s emotional.

I heard about guns at so many doors. I came to a door once with an AR pictured on the welcome mat…it wasn’t very welcoming. I knocked anyway.

If you’ve read “Jesus and John Wayne” by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, you understand what has happened to the loving Jesus we knew before he was taken over by gun extremists. Portraying Jesus as a gun guy is disgusting. There are many religious zealots who constantly rant that Democrats are “gun grabbers.”

Many rural folks, a lot of them Democrats, own guns. We hunt and have to fend off predators that like to use our chicken coops as an all-you-can eat buffet, but we use these firearms as tools. We don’t use them as accessories and we don’t own ARs or the like. We don’t wear them on our hips or head to the Capitol armed. And anyway, what’s any of that got to do with religion?

I find the issue of school prayer one of the worst lies that Evangelicals have absorbed.

A student can pray at any time and anywhere they want. It’s just that prayer can’t be directed by a teacher, or a coach, which is why I find the case of the football coach who was leading prayer with players at Bremerton School District in Washington State so egregious.

The Supreme Court ruled that the school violated coach Joe Kennedy's First Amendment rights, saying prayers amounted to private speech and could not be restricted by the school district.

Coach Kennedy praying with a crowd after the homecoming game, NPR image

Sure, the coach can pray, but the fact that players were involved is the part I object to and here is why: I was a football mom for over 20 years and I know how boys feel about not upsetting their coach if they want to play. My boys have been coerced into prayer after a game or kneeling in the end zone before a game to stay in the good graces of a coach. There was absolutely no coach telling them to pray, but did coaches notice those who did not involve themselves in the prayer? I’d say they did, and to stay on the safe side, athletes feel the need to participate in a religious ceremony to play.

In my view, not only is school prayer NOT an issue for voters who think it should be included in schools — it is already included in schools and it primarily impacts students who are not Christian, not the other way around.

Finally, LGBTQ issues seem to be a hot-button issue with Republican-voting Christians. This is one issue that has withstood time. When I was in church, there was bigotry against gay folks…that has eased a little, and now the full-brunt of the Republican hatred is aimed at trans folks. I see a constant train of anti-trans bills filed in states like mine. I find it especially awful as many of these bills are directed toward children.

But, let me tell you what I heard at rural doors about trans folks: Not one thing.

I don’t remember even one person talking about trans issues at a door or on a phone call. I think this is something that the extremists are getting wrong about rural America, and I am not the only one saying this. I talk to folks running in uncontested districts across the country and they are seeing and hearing the same thing. There is an issue with bathroom policies, but most folks really don’t want to talk about it and I’m not seeing the anger or passion about these issues like I do when talking abortion or guns. I think the Republicans are pushing a non-issue and it’s doing nothing other than turning folks into activists for trans rights. Good.

“Christians can’t vote for Democrats’ is something we are likely to hear for a while, but I am confident that by challenging previously uncontested seats, by getting boots on the ground in rural spaces, we will see a change. Folks can change when they are given a Democratic message and a candidate to vote for — it’s the only way to counter the point.

Oh, and by the way, many Democrats are Christians. They just don’t tend to use their personal religion to oppress others. I kind of like that.

~Jess