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Religion a factor Religion and politics are mixing in the biggest election since statehood.
in state elections
Faith is affecting both voter
assessments and candidate positionsBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.comFrom the races for governor to the Legislature to the City Council, religion may not be as in-your-face as it was with the same-sex marriage political campaign from a couple of election seasons ago.
But voters are turning to their faith in assessing candidates' stand on issues such as physician-assisted suicide, gambling, abortion and gay rights.
"When you talk about religion, what you really mean is Christianity, and when you talk about Christianity, what you really mean is the Christian-right agenda," said David Panisnick, a religion and philosophy professor at the University of Hawaii and Honolulu Community College.
"The conflict is essentially between the conservative Christians and the liberal Christians, and they do take opposite views on all these things," he said. "It's amazing we're talking about the same religion but two totally different attitudes."
Dems versus GOP
Hawaii's two major political parties started early this year on religious-related debates when it came to discussing their party platforms at their conventions.Conservative and moderate Republicans struck a compromise that led to a reference to a pro-choice plank being deleted from the party platform.
"The Christian right is largely Republican, and that means the Christian right is going to vote Republican anyway whether they make abortion or gays a part of their platform or not," Panisnick said. "So I think by taking a more liberal posture, (Republicans) are reaching out to Democratic voters."
The GOP position doesn't make folks like Garret Hashimoto, state chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, very happy.
"It's sad to say I don't believe we have a Republican Party that supports Christian values, and the Democratic Party certainly does not support (them)," Hashimoto said.
Hashimoto said he is "very disappointed" with the pro-choice stance of the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Linda Lingle. He sees her position as "win at all cost."
Lingle describes herself as a moderate Republican and said her beliefs are her own. She said what she tries to do is focus on the issues that conservatives and liberals do agree on -- she's anti-gambling, opposed to death with dignity legislation and, while she is pro-choice on abortion, she supports parental notification for minors.
Panisnick said no matter how much the religious right disagrees with Lingle, in the end, they'll probably vote for her.
"At worst, she's going to be the least of the two evils from their point of view," he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, debated at their convention whether a reference to support "death with dignity" should be included in their platform.
Death with dignity
When the state Senate in the waning days of this year's legislative session narrowly defeated a measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, those on both sides of the debate -- including Gov. Ben Cayetano -- predicted that the issue wouldn't die, especially in an election year.Cayetano, who pushed through the legislation known as the death with dignity bill, blamed the well-organized "religious right" for the bill's defeat.
One state Senate race that people on both sides of the issue will be watching is the Democratic primary matchup on the Big Island between Sens. Lorraine Inouye and David Matsuura. The two incumbents are running against each other because of the redrawing of the political district lines.
"It will be interesting to see what happens in Matsuura's district," said Roland Halpern, executive director of Compassion in Dying, which favors an physician-assisted suicide law.
Matsuura voted against the measure; Inouye voted for it.
Matsuura was part of religious-related debates during his four-year tenure, including a challenge to his putting a fish, seen as a symbol of Christianity, on his Senate office door.
But as chairman of the Senate Health Committee and a devout Christian, Matsuura was criticized for initially not holding a hearing on the House-approved death with dignity legislation, which he called "dumb." The governor told Matsuura to set his religious beliefs aside.
The majority of his constituency wanted him to hold a hearing so the measure could live or die on its own merits, said Rick Castberg, political science professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
"When he initially refused to have a hearing, open it to discussion, it seemed it was based on his own religious thinking," Castberg said. "He wasn't being responsible to that part of his constituency."
The death with dignity controversy will also figure in the governor's race.
"I think one of the things people are interested in knowing is, would the gubernatorial candidate be willing to veto a physician-assisted suicide bill if it came across his or her desk," said Kelly Rosati, executive director of Hawaii Family Forum.
"Governor Cayetano was always a strong advocate of physician-assisted suicide and so I think people are interested to know whether his successor will do likewise, or hold a different position on the issue."
Halpern said he's convinced that death with dignity will become law some day, but it may be more difficult if one candidate gets in over another.
"So if Linda Lingle were elected, there'd be a tougher row to hoe, if you will, than if, for instance, Ed Case, got elected," he said.
Christian vote
With a red, white and blue color scheme, stickers voicing a "We Vote Pro-Life" slogan and a "Don't Be A Christian Who Doesn't Vote" sign dressing the table, Hashimoto's voter registration booth drew hundreds at a recent church convention."We're trying to galvanize, mobilize the organizations so that we can vote one way," Hashimoto said. "We obviously look for candidates who oppose homosexuality, who oppose abortion but who say how they would help to make our children a better class of citizens down the road."
Hawaii Family Forum is putting out a guide to educate voters on candidates' positions.
"The choice of questions was done in such a way to reflect a broad range of issues that are of concern to church-going people in Hawaii -- life issues, health issues, issues related to the poor, issues related to children," Rosati said.
Topics include physician-assisted suicide, gambling, school vouchers, renewing the state's age of sexual consent at 16 years old and parental notification before minors get an abortion.
"I think the physician-assisted suicide scare at the end of the session last time and the certainty that that issue will be back is motivating a lot people that we work with," Rosati said.
Folks are also very interested in the gambling issue "and the fact that Andy Anderson has actually put it out there and talked about it as a campaign issue," she said.
Since same-sex marriage
In 1998, voters overwhelming approved a constitutional ballot question that disallowed same-sex marriages in Hawaii. The political ramifications from that campaign can still be felt."That same-sex marriage thing ... that was all religion," Panisnick said.
"Same-sex marriage got them (the conservative Christians) real organized in a more real way than before," Foster said.
Rosati said that for faith-based organizations, getting the message across has been easier since the same-sex marriage campaign.
"The same-sex marriage debate taught people that they can make a difference," she said. "And the level of participation in various faith communities is very high, and I think the success from our view on the same-sex marriage question helped to propel people forward."
