Voters Deliver Moral Mandate

Now GOP Must Deliver for Voters

By Dr. D. James Kennedy

“Moral issues fueled November 2nd’s astonishing electoral triumph for George Bush and the Republican Party in the House and Senate,” said Dr. D. James Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries. “Despite the conventional political wisdom that moral concerns are a drag on a political ticket, it was values that energized voters, lifted turnout among evangelicals and Catholics, and led to substantial GOP pickups in the House and Senate. The voters have delivered a moral mandate.”

In the wake of GOP victory, Dr. Kennedy urged party leaders not to marginalize those voters that helped make electoral success possible. “Now that values voters have delivered for George Bush, he must deliver for their values,” said Dr. Kennedy, whose national television and radio programs reach an audience of three million weekly. “The defense of innocent unborn human life, the protection of marriage, and the nomination and confirmation of federal judges who will interpret the Constitution, not make law from the bench, must be first priorities, come January.”

Noting that judicial activists have been responsible for legalizing abortion, sodomy, and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Dr. Kennedy said that electoral advances made November 2nd will be stymied unless conservative judges are placed on the federal bench. The best way to break the judicial nominee logjam in the U.S. Senate, he said, is to remove the requirement of a 60-vote supermajority to end Senate debate. “Senator Bill Frist should make it his first order of business,” Dr. Kennedy said, “to change the 60-vote cloture rule so that the minority is not empowered, as at present, to veto the will of the majority.”

Moral issues, particularly marriage amendments, drew Christian conservatives to the polls in unexpectedly large numbers. A third of all voters identified themselves as evangelicals, according to exit polls. Among Bush voters, it was moral issues, as well as terrorism, that were of paramount importance.

Voters in both blue and red states demonstrated just how much morals matter by approving 11 of 11 state ballot measures amending state constitutions to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. “Voters delivered a crushing defeat to both the homosexual lobby and to judges that have issued rulings redefining the nature of marriage,” said Dr. Kennedy. “In all 11 states where constitutional amendments were on the ballots to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, voters gave their approval by overwhelming margins, ranging from 57 percent in Oregon to the improbably lopsided 86 percent in Mississippi.”

In South Dakota, Sen. Tom Daschle, who vigorously opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment, lost his Senate seat to his pro Federal Marriage Amendment opponent, John Thune. In the House, two outspoken champions of marriage, Rep. John Hostettler and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, both sailed to victory.

“This verdict of the people gives me hope,” said Dr. Kennedy. “It may be that America may yet return to a recognition of the importance of religion and morality in public life. It is my prayer that we will return to the wisdom of the first Congress, expressed more than 200 years ago in the Northwest Ordinance, which stated, “Religion, morality, and knowledge [are] necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.”

Dr. D. James Kennedy is the most listened-to Presbyterian minister in the world today. His forthright and rational presentation of the Gospel is heard via television and radio throughout America and the world.  Beyond his leadership at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Dr. Kennedy’s energetic commitment to both evangelism and cultural renewal is demonstrated by four organizations he founded and now oversees: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., Evangelism Explosion International, Knox Theological Seminary, and Westminster Academy. For more information regarding Dr. Kennedy and his ministries visit his web site at www.coralridge.org.