The Values Voter

In the Autumn 2007 issue of The Wilson Quarterly, Jon A. Shields in his essay "In Praise of the Values Voter," writes that a great political irony is how successful the Christian Right has been "at fulfilling liberal thinkers' hope for American democracy." Compared to the organizations built by Liberals (e.g. Common Cause, Environmental Defense, NARAL Pro-Choice America), those built by the Christian Right (e.g. Operation Rescue, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women of America) have been more than checkbook activists; they have been engaged in civil action.

Some political scientists have argued "that religious groups 'distort' American politics by focusing on abortion rather than 'the least advantaged.' While this may strike some as a perfectly reasonable argument, it assumes that the human embryo has no moral status. If this assumption is wrong, if the fetus does have a claim to protection, it is precisely 'the least advantaged' that the right-to-life movement is defending."

Shields goes on to state that most Americans falsely believe that Roe vs. Wade is more restrictive of abortion than it actually is. He writes that 80% of Americans think abortion is not available during all nine months of pregnancy. This 'mass legal illiteracy' causes Americans to support keeping Roe vs. Wade intact.

He also verifies that most conservative Christians who are activists "quietly labor to engage those who disagree with them in a civil and reasonable way" and are trying to overcome the "long shadow of fundamentalists such as Jerry Falwell and Randy Terry..."