The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America

Not since the Civil War has the United States been so polarized, politically and ideologically. At the heart of this fracture is a fascinating, paradoxical marriage between our country's politics and religions.

In The Holy Vote, Ray Suarez explores the advent of this polarization and how it is profoundly changing the way we live our lives. With hands-on reporting, Suarez explores the attitudes and beliefs of the people behind the voting numbers and how the political divide is manifesting itself across the country. The reader will come to a greater understanding of what Americans believe, and how this belief structure fuels the debates that dominate the issues on our evening news broadcasts.

Evaluates the ways in which dialogues between modern voters and people of faith have impacted American politics, examining how the polarization between "red" and "blue" groups reflects core belief systems, an understanding of which the author believes is vital to the explanation of how the nation elects its leaders. 20,000 first printing.

Credo ... I believe: love note to a lost America and a look at the current predicament — How did we get here?: the fall of secularism and the march toward a new politics — Demolishing the wall of separation: winners and losers in the battle over church and state — Onward Christian soldiers: theology, politics, and the Christian art of war — To have and to hold ... over my dead body: the nasty battle over marriage ... what it is ... and who says so — Take two tablets ... and call me when the fighting starts: ten commandments, a hundred court cases, a million opinions — Child soldiers in the culture war: public schools, evolution, and human sexuality — Now, in the center ring ... abortion as the main event: abortion in religion and politics — From Al Smith to John Kerry: Roman Catholics' eighty-year pilgrimage in national politics — Shifting battle lines and the browning of America: Blacks, Latinos, and a very different view of church and politics — Render unto Caesar: Alabama's adventure with biblical policy making — Okay wise guys ... now what?