Will the Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals Sway the 2008 Election

Will the Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals Sway the 2008 Election

New Book Focuses on Voting Patterns and Trends among Key Voting Bloc

NEW YORK, March 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- In ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Threshold Editions; March 2008), Deal Hudson, former Chairman of Catholic Outreach for the Republican National Committee, explains how conservative Catholics and Evangelicals converged to forge a mighty political alliance and how they may vote this year.

With keen research and interviews with the key players who have fought the battles on the controversial issues of school prayer, abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage, Hudson traces the movement that has achieved enormous victories.

Yet, Hudson wonders if the GOP has taken religious conservatives for granted. "Future presidential campaigns will reveal whether or not the GOP considers religious conservatives indispensable," writes Hudson. "They will also provide a test for the Religious Right. Have its leaders become so used to a White House welcome that they will settle for a candidate who can win? Sen. John McCain still has some work to do to convince religious conservatives that he will be with them on key issues."

Hudson also writes about Democrats' strained relationships with religious voters and how they have subordinated religious values for liberal political tenets. "As the Democratic Party seeks to rebuild its relationship with the faith community, a deep division will open wide on the political left. Pity the Democrat who openly questions abortion on demand, fetal stem- cell research or gay marriage. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have had to move to the left in their Democratic primaries, so they have yet to address key religious issues."

Dealing with today's hot-button issues, ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS provides an unprecedented look at the confrontation of the religious right with secularists in America, a confrontation that is not only timely but also timeless in its impact.

Deal W. Hudson, M. Div. and Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture in Washington, D.C. Previously with the National Republican Committee and a Bush White House intimate, he is the former publisher of the conservative Catholic monthly Crisis and president of the Morley Publishing Group. Threshold Editions is an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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