You might be surprised to learn that of a dozen or so high profile factors, gay marriage came in tenth place. 31% said this issue would affect their voting "a lot," says Barna. "In terms of faith segments, while evangelical voters are more concerned about the issue than are most other voters, it is not likely to turn many evangelicals against Mr. Obama since few of them (less than one out of every five) expected to vote for him anyway."
So, what are the top five?
1. Health care
2. Tax policy
3. Jobs/economy
4. Foreign oil
5. Terrorism
Here's the rest:
6. Education
7. Middle East wars
8. Domestic violence
9. Immigration
10. Gay marriage
11. Environment
12. Abortion
What do you think? How would you change it?
One other thing I thought much more striking, but not surprising, about this study was that when asked which group will have the greatest influence on people's votes, 1st and 2nd place went to the media and wealthy donors (i.e. big business corporations). See this image and this image (via Paperback Theology).
It seems, now, that we are actually aware of what the dominant influences are in our culture. I wonder if we will do anything about it. Does a vote really matter? In terms of the church, to what extend should policy/legislation be our concern? Shouldn't we be living into the kingdom in any case? Can they work together? Or not?
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