When Did Jesus Become Republican?: Rescuing Our Country and Our Values from the Right-- Strategies for a Post-Bush America

Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (10/07) "When Did Jesus Become Republican?" chronicles the trends of different religions as their constituents tend to move more toward the right politically. Ellingsen provides reasons for this shift as well as offers ways for the Democratic Party to reverse the trend and regain prominence among religious and political groups. Historically, it is the Democratic Party that favors the poor, while the Republicans favor big business. Ellingsen argues that "by presenting a conservative Jesus and a Gospel that supports the Republican agenda, Bush, his cohorts, and their post-Reagan predecessors have been able to convince the large segments of the American middle class to vote against their own economic interests." Many of the groups who have changed from Democrats to Republicans have done so because of Americanization. When they entered the country as immigrants, they initially supported the Democrats because of the financial aid they provided to the poor and minorities. As new generations of these immigrant groups appeared, they had better educational opportunities and therefore were less dependent on federal assistance. Instead, they focused on business and the economy which they more closely associated with the Republicans. However, there are still some segments of the population who have resisted the trend towards voting Republican, including African-Americans, Hispanics, and some Asian-American communities. This is thought to be because the groups have "not fully Americanized, not adopted or been allowed to integrate fully into American ways of life, achieved at least a middle-class lifestyle, and/or do not practice a religion that fits with the Puritan Paradigm.: Ellingsen offers ways for the Democratic Party to retain the support of these groups as well as ways to introduce religion back into its platform to appeal to a broader segment of the population. "When Did Jesus Become Republican?" provides an extensive review of how the followers of several religions have changed their thinking when it comes to politics. Mark Ellingsen presents the facts fairly without trying to persuade the reader as to which party he or she should support. He gives an unbiased account of the past and offers strategies that the parties can adopt if they wish to counteract or retain the recent voting trends