For as much talk as there's been about race and gender in the presidential elections, religion has emerged as a key factor that the candidates, and news organizations, are continuing to pay attention to into Election Day.
Given its prominence, it's an issue that shouldn't be forgotten after the ballots have been stuffed.
In a Monday piece,
USA TODAY reported the claims of some scholars and religious leaders that religion was used to unnecessarily mock and divide people in the elections:
The intersection of religion and politics has endured its share of head-on collisions during the 2008 campaign — most involving candidates' religious resumes or those of people in their circles.
With a few exceptions, whatever seemed odd or fringe trumped serious discussion about how candidates' religious beliefs shape their approach to governance.
As the race nears its end, scholars and religious leaders are using terms like "new low" and "embarrassing" to describe how religious beliefs were distorted and picked over, while candidates were asked to mount theological defenses for their respective faiths or be held accountable for the views of others.
What I like about this piece is its different approach to the much discussed question of how religious preference correlates to candidate preference.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published several helpful charts detailing the trends in candidate preferences of major religious groups. The charts are based on
the Pew Center's final pre-election poll. The findings reveal information not just about religion, but about race. Obama, for instance, is leading among black evangelical Protestants (92% to 4%), while McCain is leading among white evangelical Protestants (68% to 23%).
|
Graph from a recent Pew survey. |
It's worth asking in the upcoming days: Did young Jewish voters vote more for Sen. John McCainn, as
The Jewish Daily suggested? What about
weekly churchgoers? Did Sen. Barack Obama really get
the majority of the Hispanic Christian votes? Looking at the minorities within these groups -- young Jewish voters who didn't vote for Obama, Hispanic Christians who voted for McCain -- and detailing their reactions to the outcome of the elections, may also make for an interesting story.
In framing your post-election coverage, think about the ongoing relevance of religion to politics.
How has your news organization handled religion coverage in the 2008 elections? 
