With Madalaine Elhabbal

Washington, DC Newsroom, November 1, 2024 / 7:00 pm

With November 5th just days away, the head of the leading conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation is urging people of faith to vote.

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” host Tracy Sabol on Friday, Kevin Roberts addressed the expected voter crisis among people of faith in America. The controversy came in light of an incident last work A study conducted by Arizona Christian University found that only 51% of believers plan to vote in the presidential election.

About 70 percent of those surveyed said they were no longer “interested” in politics or elections, while about 60 percent said they disliked all major candidates. Additionally, nearly half of respondents said they believed neither candidate represented their views and that their votes would not make a difference either way. Nearly 50% also said they believed the election results could have been manipulated.

“I’m not surprised by the results, although I’d like to say I would have been surprised a year ago,” he told Sabol, explaining that it was common for people of faith not to vote “even though it was a moral obligation.” For this reason.”

Roberts emphasized the importance of “examining the issues,” citing the tendency for Catholic and other Christian voters to refrain from voting because they dislike either candidate.

“As people of faith, we have to weigh this policy history and put it into the future and understand that if (Vice President Kamala Harris) wins, we will see threats to religious freedom,” he said. “We will see threats to our ability to worship. “Of course, as president of the United States, we will continue to pray for him.”

“But we really need to take that into consideration in the coming days,” Roberts added, “especially if there are Catholics and other Christians who think they can stay home.”

Banditry, religious freedom and freedom of expression

Roberts also addressed the issue during a roundtable discussion Friday morning, highlighting numerous policy issues that directly concern people of faith, including religious liberty, the pro-life movement and free speech.

“I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to claim that Vice President Harris is the most anti-faith, anti-religion presidential candidate in our history,” the conservative policy leader said, adding: “The problem is, we’ll lose the ability to worship religion if the Harris-Walz campaign prevails.” We will lose our freedom.”

Harris won the election and Roe v. When asked what would happen if Wade were to successfully eliminate the filibuster to become law, Roberts warned that the move would entail “a real curtailment of religious freedoms” and free speech, as well as expanding abortion.

Roberts cited notable incidents of religious intolerance in the past few weeks alone, including Harris refusing to support religious exemptions for abortion and telling two Christians they were “at the wrong rally” after yelling at them. Jesus was Lord. In a video, other protesters can be heard chanting “Lie!” He can be seen shouting. and “Liar!” to Harris before answering.

“Frankly,” he said, “this is a real problem, even for people of no faith. Because if you take away our first freedom, our freedom to believe and worship, our other freedoms will also be in danger.”

If Democrats regain their slim majority in the Senate, “there’s a 100% chance they’ll try to eliminate the filibuster and have a reasonable chance of success,” he said.

“I truly believe, because there’s evidence of that in the rhetoric over the last four or six weeks,” Roberts said, “that they’re going to curtail free speech. They’re going to curtail free speech for people of faith. They’re going to curtail free speech for organizations and media outlets.”

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If Harris is elected despite Democrats falling short of a majority, Roberts said, the current vice president would likely enact policies against religious freedom through executive orders that expand access to abortion and target people of faith.

“I think it will reset on religious freedom,” he said.

Working with Trump policies

Despite concerns about former president Donald Trump’s stance on pro-life issues such as abortion and in vitro fertilization, Roberts said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the Trump-Vance administration will “still be staunchly pro-life.”

“I think people of faith need to remember the former president’s track record on this,” he said, “And they need to remember that if President Trump and Senator Vance are elected next Tuesday, the chances are much greater, much greater.” “It’s a chance to work with them and their appointees on issues that matter to us, including abortion and religious freedom.”

“I think, on the contrary,” he said, “we have a zero percent chance of having that opportunity on abortion (and) religious freedom under a Harris-Walz administration. People of faith need to pay attention to that.”

Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for the Catholic News Agency in EWTN’s Washington, D.C. bureau. He was published by CatholicVote and also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. He is a graduate of Benedictine College.