Ron Paul’s Religious Problem

One of the most intriguing, and definitely most entertaining, features of the 2008 election season has been the devotion to their candidate that Ron Paul’s advocates have spattered across the Web on message boards, blogs, and in online polls. No doubt the Congressman has struck a cord among the politically disenfranchised. All of that being said, the libertarian grand-standing goes a little too far when religion comes into play.

Along with the anti-war right, pro-business left, and pot smokers from shore to shore, Paul’s followers claim that he will also win large segments of the evangelical vote due to his pro-life, pro-states rights statements. The view is propped up by the isolationist ultra-conservative wing of the Constitution Party. This would prove a huge advantage for Paul, especially if he were to run as an Independent or Libertarian against pro-choice front-runner Rudy Giuliani.

What Paul’s groupies have failed to take into consideration is that the war against terror is a high priority for evangelicals, and that the full promotion of personal freedoms goes directly against their moralist agenda. In a Mason-Dixon poll released on Dec. 9, it was revealed that Ron Paul received less then .5 percent of the born-again Christian evangelical vote. In New Hampshire and South Carolina, it was predicted that he would receive three times as many votes from non-church goers as from weekly attendees.

If Paul hopes to be the unifying voice of true conservatives, he needs to stretch out a hand to the religious right, or else Judge Roy More or Ambassador Alan Keyes may make their third own third-party bid, and take dissident evangelicals with them.