Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 1, 2024 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
With just days left before Nov. 5, the president of Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, is urging people of faith to vote.
In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” host Tracy Sabol on Friday, Kevin Roberts addressed the anticipated crisis of nonvoters among people of faith in America. The discussion came in light of a recent study by Arizona Christian University, which found that only 51% of people of faith planned to vote in the presidential election.
Nearly 70% of participants in the survey said they no longer held “interest” in politics or elections, while nearly 60% said they disliked all major candidates. In addition, roughly half of the participants said neither candidate represented their views and that they believed their vote would not make a difference either way. Nearly 50% also said they believed the election results would be manipulated.
“I’m not surprised by the results, although I want to say a year ago, I would have been,” he told Sabol, explaining that it is common among people of faith not to vote, despite having “a moral obligation to do so.”
Addressing the trend among Catholic and other Christian voters who abstain from voting out of dislike for both candidates, Roberts emphasized the importance of “study[ing] the issues.”
“As people of faith, we have to weigh that policy record and put it into the future and understand that if [Vice President Kamala Harris] were to win, that we are going to see threats to religious liberty,” he said. “We’re going to see threats to our ability to worship. We will continue to pray for her as the president of the United States, obviously.”
“But we really do need to consider that in the next days,” Roberts added, “particularly if there are Catholics and other Christians who are thinking they might just stay home.”
The filibuster, religious liberty, and free speech
Roberts also addressed the issue during a roundtable discussion on Friday morning, highlighting numerous policy issues that directly concern people of faith — including religious liberty, the pro-life movement, and free speech.
“I don’t believe it is hyperbole to make the claim that Vice President Harris is the most anti-faith, anti-religion presidential candidate in our history,” the conservative policy leader stated, adding: “What’s at stake is that we’re going to lose our ability to worship. We’re going to lose our religious liberty if the Harris-Walz campaign prevails.”
When asked what would happen should Harris win the election and successfully eliminate the filibuster in order to codify Roe v. Wade, Roberts warned that this move would bring about “a real abridgement of religious liberty” and free speech in addition to expanding abortion.
Roberts referenced notable incidents of religious intolerance in the past several weeks alone, including Harris’ refusal to support religious exemptions with respect to abortion as well as an incident in which she told two Christians that they were “at the wrong rally” after they shouted that Jesus was Lord. A video shows that other protesters also yelled “Lies!” and “Liar!” at Harris before she responded.
“Obviously,” he said, “this is a real problem even for people of no faith. Because if you eliminate our first freedom, which is to believe and worship as we shall, then all of the others are endangered.”
Should the Democrats regain their slim majority in the Senate, he said, “there’s a 100% chance they will attempt to eliminate the filibuster” and have a reasonable chance at success.
“I really do believe, because there’s evidence of this over the last four or six weeks of rhetoric,” Roberts said, “that they’re going to abridge free speech. They’re going to abridge free speech for people of faith. They’re going to abridge free speech for organizations and media outlets.”
If Democrats do not manage to secure a majority but Harris is elected, Roberts said, the current vice president would likely enact policies against religious freedom through executive orders expanding abortion access and targeting people of faith.
“I think she’s going to be zeroed in on religious liberty,” he said.
Working with Trump policies
Despite concerns over former president Donald Trump’s stance on life issues such as abortion and IVF, Roberts stated that he is “cautiously optimistic” that a Trump-Vance administration would “still be solidly pro-life.”
“I think people of faith need to remember the former president’s track record on this,” he said, “and need to remember that if President Trump and Sen. Vance are elected next Tuesday, that there is a far greater chance, a far greater chance of being able to work with them and the people they appoint on issues that matter to us, including abortion, including religious liberty.”
“I think in contrast,” he said, “there’s a zero percent chance we get that opportunity in our Harris-Walz administration, I think, on abortion, [and] on religious freedom. People of faith need to be mindful of that.”
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Finally, a sensible article that lays out stark reality and challenges Christians to stop worrying about “civility” and start worrying about “civilization!” I am frankly disgusted at Christians who are voting for an unknown 3rd Party candidate (or not voting at all) because they can’t vote for the Democratic Party and their evil stance on abortion and transgender policies, but they can’t stand Pres. Trump’s in-your-face personality and his unwillingness to reject the extreme “MAGAs”. I think that the willingness of so many people, including Christians, to vote for a candidate who believes in unrestricted abortion rights and implies at times that all of us will have to help pay for this is shocking. The Democratic Party candidates CLAIM to be “for the regular people” and “the poor”, but the majority of their campaign rallies have featured various “stars” who earn multi-million-dollar salaries–how hypocritical! I don’t object to entertainers making huge salaries because I know they work hard, but…why are they appearing with VP Harris?! Has she convinced them to give 3/4 of their salary to the poor in the U.S.? I doubt it! Meanwhile, people forget how much money Pres. Trump has donated to various good causes over the years, including good, wholesome organizations that most Americans don’t know exist! (And often, he remains anonymous regarding the donations and only the folks who run the organizations know who gave the money.) I think Christians need to pray hard, and then raise up their heads, get off their knees, and go vote for a candidate who has a chance of winning the election and a good chance of supporting pro-life policies and reasonable economic policies that won’t take money away from hard-working regular Americans to pay for unrestricted abortion and sex-change operations on minors, and who doesn’t try to ram through plans to eliminate any religious objections (and those who voice them) to these policies.
At this point, those who think that a second Trump administration is going to make a significant difference in terms of moving the ratchet back– not merely delaying the next move to the left another two to four years at best– are simply naive. Simply being “not Harris” at this point is woefully insufficient. Expect no meaningful change under Trump II– and the staus quo is unacceptable. The status quo simply gives leftists more time to undermine society as they lie in wait for the next election. Trump clearly didn’t drain the swamp in his first term and one has no reason to think that it will be any different the second time arond.
Pres. Trump was on his way to “draining the swamp”–until COVID appeared on the scene and Americans expected the President to “make it all go away.” The Democrats seized on the American Panic and blamed Pres. Trump for the virus and its spread. Pres. Trump was defeated in the election, not by Pres. Biden and VP Harris, but by COVID. Under Pres. Biden and his Democratic policies, many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and cannot get out of debt–it’s $12/lb. for hamburger (not even ground chuck!) at the grocery store now! And a couple taking their 2 kids to McDonald’s will pay around $25 for a 4 cheeseburgers, a few boxes of fries, and a couple of sodas–and there will only be a few people working in the McDonald’s because–well, possibly because there aren’t enough kids growing up due to the easy availability of abortion in the U.S. over the last several decades, and the “choice” of many American women to avoid having children even if she is married. And let’s talk about abortion on demand, and transition surgery on demand–actually, let’s not talk about it because it’s just too sad. I don’t think Pres. Trump will “save the world,” but I think that politicians like him–regular people, not professional politicians–at least have a chance at making the U.S. a little better for its citizens and immigrants working on citizenship.
Harris cannot authorize abortion on a national basis due to the Dobbs Decision. Nor can Trump prohibit abortion nationally for the same reason. The issue is now up to the States.
I’m glad the abortion issue is “up to the States,” as I have been able to move from Illinois (notoriously pro-abortion because of the large population of Chicago and suburbs lording it over the rest of the state, which is mainly rust-belt small cities and small rural towns with pro-life populations) to a pro-life state. But not everyone can move away from their pro-abortion state. And many of the pro-life states are facing elections featuring extreme pro-abortion candidates who have huge purses of money to spend on their propaganda campaigns and have big (and fabulously wealthy) stars like Beyonce appearing at their rallies and voicing their support for these candidates all over social media. I am praying hard for my state to remain pro-life–the “pro-choice” legislation that is up for a vote in my state is horrifying in its scope and I hope that there are enough pro-life people who will turn out to vote (in spite of the 3-4 hour wait in the lines at early voting–who knows what the actual voting day lines will look like?!). And even though we desperately need rain, I hope it doesn’t rain on Tuesday!