E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
The outspoken Rev. Franklin Graham claimed today that the “majority of Christians” did not vote.
“We know that from of the statistics that I’ve heard that the majority of Christians in this country just did not vote for whatever reason,” he told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. “The vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls.” He added, “God is in control, and if Christians are upset, they need to be upset at themselves. We need to do a better job of getting our people- the church to vote. Now, I’m not trying to tell you how to vote, you can vote, but vote, my goodness, and vote for candidates that stand for Biblical values.”
But Graham’s assertion -- and implication that had white Christian evangelicals just showed up in bigger numbers, President Obama would have lost -- is off base.
In fact, white evangelicals/born-again Christians made up the same percentage of the electorate as they did in 2008 – 26%. They voted for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, by a wider margin than they did for Sen. John McCain four years ago.
And, they made up a larger share of the electorate in 2012 than in 2004, when the Christian Right supposedly fueled George W. Bush’s reelection. They also voted for Romney with the exact same margin as for Bush in 2004, 78%-21%.
Not to mention, Obama won the 48 percent of the electorate that was Christian and not Protestant or Mormon -- 50%-48% among Catholics (25% of the electorate) and 50%-49% of "Other Christians" (23% of the electorate).
In Ohio, they were 1 point more of the electorate than 2008; in Colorado, 4 points higher; in Iowa, up 7 points; in Nevada, up 2.
White evangelical voters in select swing states
CO: 25%, 76-22 Romney; 2008: 21%, 76-23 McCain
FL: 24%, 79-21 Romney; 2008: 24%, 77-21 McCain
IA: 38%, 64-35 Romney; 2008: 31%, 65-33 McCain
NV: 18%, 69-28 Romney; 2008: 16%, 72-27 McCain
OH: 31%, 69-30 Romney; 2008: 30%, 71-27 McCain
They did decline as a share of the electorate in North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. But the drops in states like North Carolina (Graham’s home state) and Virginia likely have less to do with apathy and more to do with demographic changes – transplants in North Carolina’s Research Triangle and growth in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia, for example.
The fact is, Virginia and North Carolina are looking less and less like the Old South and more and more like Mid-Atlantic states.
White evangelical voters in the South (where exit polls are available)
MS: 50%, 95-5 Romney; 2008: 46%, 94-6 McCain
AL: 47% , 90-10 Romney; 2008: 47%, 92-8 McCain
NC: 35%, 79-20 Romney; 2008: 44%, 74-25 McCain
VA: 23%, 83-17 Romney; 2008: 28%, 79-20 McCain
Are there Christian evangelicals who did not vote? Certainly. But that’s true every year and of every demographic group.
Evangelicals make up 26 percent of adults in the country, according to a major 2008 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey. They matched that this election.
The U.S. Census says there are more than 311 million people in the United States. If evangelical adults are 26 percent of them, then there would be 80 million potential voters.
So far, 123 million votes have been counted in this election – and that number will get higher by the millions as votes continue to be counted like in 2008. Evangelicals made up 26 percent of them, therefore, about 32 million evangelicals voted – less than half of their population.
But there’s a need for context here: (1) They make up just 14 percent of the registered-voter base in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. They outpaced that percentage in the presidential election, (2) This is true every other demographic group in the country as well.
Latinos, for example, according to the U.S. Census, are nearly 17 percent of the country, but only made up 10 percent of the 2012 electorate. They make up just 8 to 9 percent of the registered-voter base of the NBC/WSJ poll.
That would mean just 12 million of the 52 million adult Hispanics voted.
If this was Australia, and the U.S. had compulsory voting, Graham’s argument that evangelicals would have tipped the balance would not hold up very well.
Leave a Comment:
I don't think religion should ever bear on political decisions. I implicitly mistrust anyone who requires divine punishment and reward in order to come to an ethical decision. It doesn't show much character. There are competent people of non Christian faiths who don't get the opportunity to give back to their country through elected office. How badly does America want a balanced budget? Enough to vote a Muslim into office if he/ she could actually make that happen? I don't think so; I would hope so, but not in America anytime soon. The examples of "Christian" politicians who behave contrary to the tenets of their faith are too numerous to count. It doesn't mean anything anymore just to swear you're a Christian politician. I want this recession to end, I don't care if you worship a gilded hot dog!
Karl Rove used exactly the same management strategy as Romney did at the Bain Capital to manage other struggling companies which eventually filed for bankruptcy while Romney and Bain Capital got away with a large sum of fees.
In this situation, Romney and Republican Party are in the role of the struggling comapny that lost big time in the election, and Karl Rove is in the role of Romney/ Bain Capital. It's ironic, isn't it?
quotoUS, How do you come to the conclusion that Romney and the Republicans lost big time in the election? Look at the the voting in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, and even California and you can see that the republicans won more counties by far, but democrats won the larger voting districts. The reelection of a republican majority in the house shows this also. In my opinion the democrats did a better job at falsely defining Romney than the republicans did of Obama. For better of worse Obama was reelected and all parties need to listen, reason, and work together to get the economy going and a better foreign affairs execution.
The reelection of a republican majority... for real. You know not all those members were in elections this year - right? I can't wait to see what happens in 2222200000011114444.
Two words
Dumb Whites.
Billy Graham is now the helpless, senile meat puppet of his son Franklin. To his eternal shame, Franklin is now using the love and prestige his father commands in the world to further his thoroughly un-Christian agenda. So, here's the deal: I condemn Franklin Graham to a single day in the Lake of Fire. Not an eternity, mind you, just one day of unendurable pain and agony. I'm no admirer of Billy, so he, too, can burn in agony for a day. He did his job all too well in raising Franklin. May the tortuous fire cleanse them both of their devilish apostasy.
Riker, Is it wrong to have an agenda? What is Obama using to futher his agenda? This is so far a reasonablly free country and he as well as you and I have a right to give our opinion. Read the details of the article and I believe you will find that the headline is a total lie.
Now watch this post. Its obvious this punk does not have the skills that daddy had so one tends to think that daddy may have done a little "Diddle" on the boy after some good ole preaching. REMEMBER,these are a sexual frustrated cowd and perversion runs deep.
I HAVE MORE
I liked Billy Graham the first.. He was ok to listen to..His Kid is becoming a pain in the butt for some of the stupid things that he has come up with. He is suppose to try to save us, not to tell everyone that he knows who is a Christian and who is not. He should know better but he is a power hungry person, and mortal so this is what we get. This whole debate about who is a better Christian is not what they are suppose to teach... What makes his policies dictate who is a better Christian... Is he setting the standard? Is this the same idiot that was on TV right before the election and said that this is the last election before Christ comes? Just another case of someone trying to dictate what he wants personally instead of thinking of what he has been taught...This country was suppose to be founded on the principle of freedom of religion.. And there is suppose to be a separation of church and state..That does not mean that people in government can not be religious, it just means that you have to have a guide line between the two... The only thing that we get hammered with when voting for whoever is running for any office but especially the Presidency is, What is their religion, and just how good of a Christian are they. If you believe and are a believer, that is not something that mortal man is suppose to do... It is just like thinking that if you show up in church believing that as long as you are there that makes you a Christian.. If you believe and were taught that God is all knowing, the subject is mute. He knows that you are just trying to show off pretending to be something that you are not... When I vote for someone religion is not the first or second or for that matter the third thing that comes to mind... And it should not be the main objective at all. After watching the Republicans trying to get to the White house by trying to show the rest of us how Christian they are and they are better then the rest, smacks of narcissism. We see through this professing of how great thou are not... That anyone who stands up there and says that the Christians did not come out to vote is a travesty to whatever religion they are.. I hate to tell them this but if you believe in God and all his wisdom, on Judgement day they will be judged more severely then the rest because of what they profess.. They in this lifetime do not know that I as a Christian, voted and willfully of sound mind and body for who I wanted to... And I am not going to hell for it.. They do not call the shots, they do not have that kind of power... Actually is there not a verse in the Bible that says something about false prophets? God will let fools like that suffer...
Well, since Graham originally called Mormonism a cult, maybe his type of Christians backed Obama who is a member of a mainstream Protestant denomination.
Good lord, NBC: you're almost as incompetent with numbers as the Republicans were this time.
There are 311 million Americans, but that includes millions of infants, toddlers, and children who are not eligible voters. So when you apply your percentages for evangelicals or for Latinos to 311 million, you come up with the number of evangelical or Latino PEOPLE, NOT the number of evangelical or Latino ELIGIBLE VOTERS! That's pretty basic math, not Bayesian probability calculations or Monte Carlo simulations!
Guess who WON'T be replacing 538 any time soon....
iT SADDENS ME TREMENDOUSLY that my oldest and dearest "christian" friends and mentors participated in a smear campaign against Obama with ' Lies, damn lies and "christian" lies' (with apologies to Mark Twain). That they could do so in total contrast to the "Love thy Neighbor " and To tell "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but" fundamentals of the Christianity they taught me , I find incomprehensible. Absolute lies, forged pics depicting Obama as a Muslim, spreading the Birther BS etc etc etc. Frankly those 'evangelical' christians got what they deserved..
OBAMA
Interestingly, Kered, I have always found that the average atheist lives a far more Christ-like life than the average "christian."
Thanks, and I also have several atheists friends that I admire tremendously.. Esp after the above abomination. Personally, I now consider myself a Gnostic, one who has no need of priests and churches to communicate with God
I grew up hearing the saying that you could always find more compassion in a bar full of drunks then you could in a church full of Christians. The hate that has been and is being spewed by those who claim to be Christians in regards to this president has been IMO horrendous and when I read stories about a decline in church goers, I understand why. Thankfully I understand that God is nothing like these so called Christians and their church's and my faith lies in Him, unfortunately more and more people are turning away from church due to it's intolerance.
Kered, love the Gnostic, had never heard of it until now.
Frankie is a loser who's nursing on his daddy's aging breast (I'm try to be nice) because he couldn't make a life in the real world. Now he gets paid well by scamming money from stupes and criticizing those who are productive.
Franklin Graham is a right -wing christian idiot, just like his father. The problem here is the make believe world of religion. There is no more reason to believe in God than there is to believe in the Easter bunny or Santa Claus. There is no more reason to believe in an "after life" than there is to believe in a "before life".
Just think about it. How can there be an after without a before? What came first; the chicken or the egg? What really came first was the amoebae. The chicken and her eggs came much, much later through a scientific process called EVOLUTION. People who don't have enough brain cells to figure that out shouldn't be making rules for other to live by and shouldn't have the right to vote at all.
Creationists always like to point at the rather spotty fossil record to cast doubt on evolution, but they ignore the field of genetics. Our modern genetic knowledge has conclusively proven that ALL life on earth is interrelated. Not only do we share a common ancestor with the other grea apes, [yes, humans are a TYPE of ape] but we even share a common ancestor with vegetation! Life began as simple microscopic organisms in the primordial seas which ALL life forms evolved from. Denying this in these modern times is ignorance, pure and simple.
If one thing is perfectly clear after this election is that the majority of people in this country want to keep religion and politics separate. The majority of the people in this country do not want us to become the Christian version of the Taliban. I think even a large percentage of Christians would aver. Religion should be something very private, it should be between you and whoever you choose your God to be. No need to get the government involved.
The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham had the respect and ear of heads of nations, religious leaders and world political figures. Franklin is undoing all of the good works and respect his father garnered. How sharp the serpent's tooth....
Charlie, You are taken in too much by the mainsteam media they are the only ones saying such baloney. This article is a good example of a misleading headline. Where does Graham say Romney lost because christians did not vote? He very clearly said that people should vote and he thought they should choose based on who has the better biblical views. He gave his opinion and there is nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong with news media twisting words and making biased news. They should be journalists and leave their opinion to editoral pages.
He didn't say Romney lost becasue christians did not vote in exactly those words CKSM, but that was obviously what he intentionally implied, and you know it.
If he intended that he would have said that. I'll bet you strongly defend Obama on his wordings such as "you did not build that."
"Charlie, You are taken in too much by the mainsteam media"
CKSM ---you are way too taken in by the right wing entertainment industry --- the Limbaughs and the Fox people who tell you what you WISH was true. I'll bet you were one of those believing the polls were stacked in favor of Democrats and Romney was going to win by 7%.
" I'll bet you strongly defend Obama on his wordings such as "you did not build that."
Well CKSM --- after reading that I have no doubt you get your information from the right wing entertainment industry. In that speech, President Obama NEVER said "you didn't build your business." What he did say is you didn't build the highways, the schools the airports -- the structures that make a business run. Romney, Limbaugh, Fox only reported part of the speech.
What? A right wing evangelical Christian preacher who doesn't have a clue. How novel.
Actually the right wing Christian nuts did ensure an Obama win, I know I made sure I voted for Obama here in South Carolina knowing full well this is a one party good ole fat boy broken beyond repair red state. So i thank them for spewing there hate and intolerance, cause it got a lot of people out to the polls. Thank you!
The sad part is that the hateful, bigotted, extremist right wing still attracted 48% of the voting public by running a complete scumbag like the corporate thug, pathological liar Mitt Romney
This article only proves one thing, most Christians are hypocritical and totally full of -s h i t-.
Voting for a Mormon? Mormons aren't Christian! But Romney is white so I guess that makes it alright.
Mr. Graham and his ilk do not represent the form of Christianity I believe in. I am white, middle-aged, and fully recognize that my demographic will eventually become a minority. Demographics have been and are working against the this segment of the population. Many have seen this coming. Instead of working towards inclusiveness, this portion of the population has stayed white, angry, loud, born-again and have become fringe wing-nuts. The Republican party as the result of over-relying on this demographic has seen it's tent shrink in size. I want to see change and a return to a strong two-party system where they can check the others excesses and compromise for the common good. I also want to see a Christianity that based more on the teachings of Jesus over the ranting of Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
Mitt is a spoiled, jealous, under achieving human being, and once more, he doesn't care if you think that. his ego wa destroyed in the electoral process, his views were of yesteryear when the likes of W.Wilson and Heebie Hoover were in office- complete dedicated to staying out of the loop. it was ego that drove him, but not a cent came from his wallet eh? its locked away protected in other lands. the Evangelicals are traitors to their so called savior - a man of peace, yet determination to wipe human corruption from his presence, and wow, could that man forgive, think about it evangelicals. what do you really stand for? George may have had his hand on the bible, but his brain was in full reality of what a new country needed and it wasn't coming from the scriptures. you see he apparently lived the biblical virtues but they did not handicap him in his work, nor did it with Jefferson and Madison or even the Adam's boys. they were nation building and looked at every option long before the party's began to sordidly influence the electoral process, long be fore filthy lobbyists went to work to dishonor the electoral process and congressmen left them into their offices and soled their clothes in the process.
religious zealots of any cloth are frightening - their one dimensional thought processes are similar to reptiles, eyt I trust a reptile more than a zealot. looks who is at war today = zealots vs zealots. religions of peace, not hardly.
Graham, go cry somewhere because your God was not listening to you.
Apparently Christians and the country as a whole don't care for the hypocrisy being peddled by the GOP in the name of you know who, Billy.
Now the beloved Rev. Billy Graham is saying that Mormonism is not a cult. He's now a hypocrite. The anti-christ (Mitt) tempted a disciple.
When attacking a minority, 60% of white people (especially the guys) will stick together come h e l l or high water. And God himself is placed on the shelf.
God is not mocked. Most white people are doomed to hell. And this is why he is causing the white race to become extinct, having them bred out of existence for their blasphemy.
Believe it.
Matthew 5:5 - "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Larry, the world is headed into a brown-light brown skinned population, along with the so called yellow man hue. Which by my lights is just fine, the days of the exclusive "white" European demographics are doomed, the good old boys are too dumb and scared to face the inevitable.
God is omnipotent. If God had wanted Romney to win, he would have won. Never fails to amaze that when self proclaimed Christians like Franklin Graham win elections, they crow that God was on their side, but when they lose it never occurs to them that maybe God is trying to tell them that they are the ones on the wrong path and it's time for them to start acting in a more Christ-like manner. You remember Christ, right? The guy who was all about helping the poor and feeding the hungry. The same guy that went around healing the sick without regard as to whether they had insurance or not. So many people are so far removed from the teaching of the man they named their religion after that they, in my opinion, commit blasphemy simply by referring to themselves as Christians.
God is omnipotent. If God had wanted Romney to win, he would have won. Never fails to amaze that when self proclaimed Christians like Franklin Graham win elections, they crow that God was on their side, but when they lose it never occurs to them that maybe God is trying to tell them that they are the ones on the wrong path and it's time for them to start acting in a more Christ-like manner. You remember Christ, right? The guy who was all about helping the poor and feeding the hungry. The same guy that went around healing the sick without regard as to whether they had insurance or not. So many people are so far removed from the teaching of the man they named their religion after that they, in my opinion, commit blasphemy simply by referring to themselves as Christians.
60% of you white people. You came so close to putting a non-christian, racist, flip flopping, corporate w h o r e in office. But God overruled you.
When you reflect on what you almost did to this country, try to to kill yourselves....like white people are known to do.
So, Franklin Graham is saying that the majority of Americans who voted for President Obama aren't Christians. The real Christians would have voted against him. As I get older, I realize that these so-called spiritual leaders are nothing but phonies and a joke.