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Segment 2
Reading Comprehension
Read the article "Decoding 'Moral Values'" by Aly Colón.
Answer the following questions:
- What issues, according to this article, do reporters associate with "moral values" voters?
Abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research
- What terms do reporters use interchangeably to describe these voters?
Evangelical, religious, Christian, and conservative
- Who are the leaders commonly heard in reports on this movement?
James Dobson, the Rev. Rick Warren, and Charles Colson
- What did Baptist minister Tony Campolo mean when he said "evangelical Christianity had been hijacked?"
That evangelicals are not clones, that they can think and speak for themselves.
- What issues does Campolo think evangelicals need to emphasize?
War, poverty, and the environment.
Answer key
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Critical Thinking
Answer the following questions:
- Do you think that the author is correct about "moral issues" being a way to explain the 2004 election results? Why or why not?
Yes: Many people cited issues that relate to moral issues as a reason they voted.
No: Historic trends have caused more people to identify themselves with the Republican Party; many people supported the President because of the 9/11 aftermath, etc.
- How would relate a "moral issues" discussion to questions of the environment? Of poverty? Of war?
Answers could include:
• The Environment: Religious people have a moral obligation to protect the environment as part of God's creation.
• Poverty: It is a religious person's duty to help those less fortunate, because we are all created by God in his image, and thus are all valuable.
• War: War is immoral as a violation of the prohibition against killing.
- Why do you think Campolo says that it's important to "demonstrate that we are a body of individuals, each of whom can think for himself or herself?"
Because for evangelicals to be taken seriously, they must show that they are not just blindly following the dictates of leaders, but are, in fact, a coalition of people with strongly held principles.
Answer key
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Research Challenges
Answer the following questions:
- Go to www.BeliefNet.com, www.theRevealer.org, www.GetReligion.org, or www.ReligionLink.org websites. Find articles that discuss the interplay between religion and politics.
- Research the stories of Supreme Court cases such as Wisconsin v. Yoder, Lemon v. Kurtzman, or Oregon v. Smith, to see where religious values can collide with political and legal norms.
Answer key
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Key Terms and Topics
Terms
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The following words can be found in the poems referred to in the previous sections.
- Appropriating - taking for one's exclusive use
- Credible - believable
- Evangelical - Protestant churches that emphasize personal salvation often characterized by a crusading enthusiasm.
- Religious Affiliation - group of faith with which you identify.
- Spectrum - continuous range
- Stem cell research - scientific study of uses of cells, often taken from a fetus.
- Watergate scandal - 1970's political wrongdoing of President Nixon and his associates.
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Answer key
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