Re-Updates Abound: Thoughts and musings on religious support for President

BeliefNet's David Kuo yesterday posted commentary on Sam Brownback's latest oped, which outlines the Senator's basic political agenda moving forward into the election.

In light of Brownback's endorsement of John McCain, covered in the wave of religious support extended toward Presidential candidates last week, Kuo explains how McCain's backers might be a little peeved by the fact that Brownback neglected to mention McCain in the piece.

Aptly stated, Kuo says, "Brownback is scaring me. The GOP will succeed to 'the degree that it is faith-filled'. . . That is exactly and precisely wrong. America doesn't need the GOP to be more faith-filled. It needs our churches to be more faith-filled. It needs individuals and families to be more faith-filled. It needs priests and pastors to be more faith-filled. It does not need a political party to be more faith-filled."

Basically, the point here touches on the slippery slope that is the marriage of GOP politics and faith. It's one thing to cater to the religious leanings of your contingency; as we all know, pandering to special interest groups is a necessity of national politics. However, when will these politicians realize that all "Christians" cannot be lumped into one group, and that — like most other Americans — their views range widely on the political spectrum?

It doesn't seem like Brownback knows or cares that this is a possibility, so again, I'll bring up the fact that it will be interesting to see where the traditional "Religious Right" ends up voting in the primaries and in the election.