Religion Will Play Larger Role in This Presidential Election

This is a companion to an earlier report from Lipscomb University’s Christian Scholars Conference

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s commission on ethics and integrity, says the fact that Democrats are making an active push for evangelical votes is a change from the last election cycle. He says Barack Obama is much more comfortable talking about matters of faith than his predecessor, John Kerry.

“It’s very clear that Senator Obama is not ceding the evangelical vote and is going to go after it, vote by vote, pew by pew. And the McCain campaign I think is going to do its best to blunt that. So we’re going to have a lively discussion.”

Land says Republican candidate John McCain is wrong to call America a “Christian nation.” He thinks that’s bad theology and that it ignores the rights of the nation’s non-Christians. At the same time, Land says he won’t vote for Obama because of the senator’s pro-choice stance on abortion.