Health's Faith-Based Lobbying |
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Health's Faith-Based Lobbying
September 20,2009
Congressional Quarterly
Ben Weyl
The health care debate turns out to have a spiritual dimension on top of all the other talking points. Religious groups that are generally on the right and left ends of the political spectrum not only have become interested in options for revamping the medical insurance system, they've also taken sides and are aggressively organizing their followers to influence what Congress does on the issue.
For religious conservatives, the concern is abortion, and in this case the suspicion that President Obama wants to use the health care package as a vehicle for directing federal funds to providing abortions -- despite his repeated statements to the contrary.
"I have always thought that the religious constituency gets mobilized around issues of the body more so than anything else," says D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University who studies Christian evangelicals. "It's something that people feel viscerally."
In June, activists launched the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition of more than 60 organizations, including Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Members of the coalition have held prayer vigils and news conferences and lobbied members of Congress against what they see as a pro-abortion rights threat.
Democrats have tried to keep abortion from becoming an issue; the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July adopted an amendment by California Democrat Lois Capps designed to make sure no federal funds would go to abortion services. But religious conservatives were not reassured. The amendment, said Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts, "is an effort to get pro-life votes, but this is not a pro-life amendment."
The health care debate, which has become more emotional over the summer, has helped religious conservatives recover their balance after the devastating 2008 election. "Political movements are always more successful when they have a common enemy," Lindsay says, "and nothing can mobilize evangelicals the way that a liberal Democratic administration can."
Obama, however, may have stolen a march on such groups when he met with religious groups this summer and spoke on the Internet with socially liberal groups including the PICO National Network, Faith in Public Life, Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Such groups are concerned about improving medical care for the poor and the uninsured and have actively supported Obama's plan.
The groups are running a "40 Days for Health Reform" campaign of phone calls, advertisements and rallies, including one at the Capitol. Sojourners, led by the Rev. Jim Wallis, has bombarded talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity with complaints about their criticism of the president's effort.
This mobilization is "a resurgence of common-good activism, religious-based activism" in the mold of the civil rights movement, says John Gehring, deputy communications director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. "In many ways I think the progressive religious community that we're a part of has really gotten their act together and is mobilizing in ways that we've never done before."
Ben Weyl
The health care debate turns out to have a spiritual dimension on top of all the other talking points. Religious groups that are generally on the right and left ends of the political spectrum not only have become interested in options for revamping the medical insurance system, they've also taken sides and are aggressively organizing their followers to influence what Congress does on the issue.
For religious conservatives, the concern is abortion, and in this case the suspicion that President Obama wants to use the health care package as a vehicle for directing federal funds to providing abortions -- despite his repeated statements to the contrary.
"I have always thought that the religious constituency gets mobilized around issues of the body more so than anything else," says D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University who studies Christian evangelicals. "It's something that people feel viscerally."
In June, activists launched the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition of more than 60 organizations, including Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Members of the coalition have held prayer vigils and news conferences and lobbied members of Congress against what they see as a pro-abortion rights threat.
Democrats have tried to keep abortion from becoming an issue; the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July adopted an amendment by California Democrat Lois Capps designed to make sure no federal funds would go to abortion services. But religious conservatives were not reassured. The amendment, said Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts, "is an effort to get pro-life votes, but this is not a pro-life amendment."
The health care debate, which has become more emotional over the summer, has helped religious conservatives recover their balance after the devastating 2008 election. "Political movements are always more successful when they have a common enemy," Lindsay says, "and nothing can mobilize evangelicals the way that a liberal Democratic administration can."
Obama, however, may have stolen a march on such groups when he met with religious groups this summer and spoke on the Internet with socially liberal groups including the PICO National Network, Faith in Public Life, Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Such groups are concerned about improving medical care for the poor and the uninsured and have actively supported Obama's plan.
The groups are running a "40 Days for Health Reform" campaign of phone calls, advertisements and rallies, including one at the Capitol. Sojourners, led by the Rev. Jim Wallis, has bombarded talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity with complaints about their criticism of the president's effort.
This mobilization is "a resurgence of common-good activism, religious-based activism" in the mold of the civil rights movement, says John Gehring, deputy communications director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. "In many ways I think the progressive religious community that we're a part of has really gotten their act together and is mobilizing in ways that we've never done before."