NASHVILLE — Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s moral concerns and public policy entity, is spearheading a voter education and registration drive to encourage Americans to vote according to their values and not necessarily along party lines in the upcoming presidential election.
Underscoring the election’s importance, Land announced to the Executive Committee the launch of iVoteValues.com, an initiative to educate voters and register new voters.
The Web site will eventually offer voters a side-by-side comparison of presidential candidates’ values, gleaned from their statements on key issues and their political party’s platform. Among the issues to be covered are abortion, fetal stem cell research, same-sex “marriage,” the Pledge of Allegiance and the public display of the Ten Commandments.
The effort hopes to see 2 million new voters registered for the 2004 elections. An estimated 4–5 million evangelical Christians failed to vote during the 2000 presidential election. The initiative will urge churches to hold registration rallies, and to mark July 4 and Sept. 26, 2004, as “National Voter Registration Days.”
The Web site will also aid church leaders in discerning what type of political activity is and is not legal for a church according to the Internal Revenue Service.
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