A persistent point of contention within the Republican Party is the extent to which explicit identification with traditional Judeo-Christian values is a good idea.
I feel that if we add the growing influence of non-white voters, it would be a win-win for Republicans to strongly advocate for these traditional values - which would put Republicans in stark contrast to Democrats.
My organization, CURE, just convened a meeting in Washington, D.C., of 25 black pastors from across the country, each averaging about 1,000 people, to discuss ideas and policy. They are black Americans, but they are also Christians and it is Christianity that defines their lives.
As I listen to these Black pastors and the many Black Christians who reach out to me as I travel around the country, I hear growing concern about the Obama administration’s indifference and retreat toward the values they hold most dear.
The latest example is this administration’s silence on the genocide taking place in the Middle East against Christians.
We watch with horror as hundreds of thousands of people seek refuge, displaced by violence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. No one should be indifferent to human injustice and suffering of all kinds.
However, this persecution of Christians is unique because ISIS and other militant Islamic groups clearly target Christians for destruction.
Hudson Institute international human rights lawyer Nina Shea writes: “In the summer of 2014, ISIS launched its caliphate from Mosul (Iraq), marking Christian homes with a red “N” for “Nazarene” before confiscating them and exiling their owners. “
The British daily Sunday Express reports: “More than 700,000 Syrians, including 1.1 million Christians, have already been forced to leave the country.” It is believed that there are no more than 250,000 Christians living in Syria today.
Yet the American president, who claims to be a Christian, remains paralyzed. We hear no military intervention strategy or systematic plan to provide shelter for these Christians.
Meanwhile, domestically, Republicans have failed to pass legislation that would end the flow of taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood, despite what is now known about the nation’s largest abortion provider trading in baby body parts.
Republicans have failed to stop our tax dollars funding this organization because President Obama will veto any such effort, and there doesn’t appear to be enough votes in the Senate to override that veto.
And of course, the Obama administration is aggressively supporting homosexual initiatives and changing the definition of marriage, which many black Christians do not like.
Too many conservatives very wrongly believe that black voices cannot be removed from the liberal party.
It is worth noting that despite the projected immense escalate in the Latino population, more blacks still vote than Latinos. In the 2012 election, 13 percent of voters were black and 10 percent were Latino. There were about 4 million more blacks than Latinos voting.
It is also worth noting that in 2012, for the first time in history, blacks (66.2%) had the highest voter turnout rate in the country. And not just because of Obama. Black voter turnout has increased in every presidential election since 1996, when it was 53%.
Politico named 7 states as “tossed” in 2016. The three with the most electoral votes – Ohio, Virginia and Florida – went to Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004. In all three it states that in 2012, black turnout exceeded white turnout.
A 2012 Pew Research study found that 56 percent of black Protestants say they attend church weekly, compared with 37 percent of the general public.
The Black vote could be a game-changer in 2016. Republicans have an opportunity to win over Black voters by aggressively representing the Christian values they hold dear and critical to the future of their community and nation.
