Faith: the national factor

We heard it in 2004: social issues, "faith-based" voters, gay marriage, abortion and an enumeration of all the issues that supposedly divided voters of faith and more secular voters.

The time has come for the Democratic Party to stress the universality and national scope of religious voters and values. People of faith aren't confined to red states, secularists aren't exclusive to blue states. In anticipation of the 2008 election, it is time to embrace the atheist in the cornfields in Kansas, the Hindu surfer in Florida, the Orthodox Jew in New York, and the personal spirituality of numerous Californians. The Party can't survive, nor would it want to, without the inclusive support of religious voters.

Leaders in the Democratic Party have taken notice of this dire need. Perhaps most notably, Rev. Joseph Kitchen has spearheaded a movement to obtain official approval from the Young Democrats of America's National Committee as an official caucus. To this end, Rev. Kitchen and staff have created a website to mobilize and inform voters about the groups goals and priorities: www.youngfaithdems.org.

The group cites four priorities:
1) Ending Poverty
2) Ending the Genocide in Darfur
3) Fighting AIDS/HIV
4) Protecting the Environment

These priorities are such that people of faith and non believers alike can herald them as just and worthy. The Democratic Party cannot survive more divisive politics. The time for caustic divisiveness is over. It is time to unite-Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Protestants, Lutherans, Baptists, and everything in between- and succeed. Success in 2008 depends on it.

Talitha Hazelton, Atchison.