Posted on 07/22/2011 6:47:04 AM PDT by DogwoodSouth
"It is good to be here in the sunny south..." So said Francis Xavier Seelos, the now-beatified Redemptorist priest when he was arrived in New Orleans in 1866. Indeed, it seems that many modern-day Catholics would agree.
Recent statistics released by the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project show that while the number of Catholic priests and parishes has continually dropped in the U.S. over the past decade, the number of American Catholics has risen. This means that the average size of American Catholic parishes is growing, along with the number of weekend Masses offered at these parishes.
The 1964 research blog of Georgetown Univ. takes combines this information with recent census data which proves that the population of the U.S. is moving West and South (the so-called Sun Belt states). Once-bustling industrial states in the North are drying up as southern and western states grow by leaps and bounds. Michigan even went so far as to lose population at the last census (the only state to do so).
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Catholic Church is experiencing its greatest growth within our country in western and southern states. (You might say that Southern fried Catholicism is becoming more and more mainstream).
(Excerpt) Read more at southernfriedcatholicism.com ...
The results are disputed between polls, but it appears that Catholics have only voted Republican for certain, 3 times, those were to reelect Nixon in 1972, to elect Reagan in 1980, and to reelect Reagan in 1984.
Disputed polling has National Election studies claiming Catholics voted to reelect Eisenhower in 1956, but Gallup says they voted for the Democrat, Gallup and National election studies says they voted Democrat in 1988, but media exit polls say they voted for Reagan’s veep, HW Bush, and we get that exact same break downfor George W’s reelection in 2004.
Other than those they have always voted Democrat.
Protestants have always voted Republican going back to around the early 1900s (that is as far as I can find good polls) with three exceptions, 1932, 1936, and 1964.
If your post had been a simple question without the speculation, a yes or no is what you would have gotten.
Go ahead, we talk about the black vote all the time.
So far no one can explain them, but we do know that they switched instantly from permanent Republican, to permanent Democrat in the 1936 election.
On the contrary, it makes perfect sense. Any Catholic who votes like a Catholic will vote pro-life and pro-family. If your "conservatism" is pro-life and pro-family, that's what they'll vote for. If it isn't, it's not worth fighting for.
As far as Catholics who don't vote their faith, if their Catholicism is left behind when they go into the voting booth, what's the point of calling it the "Catholic vote"? You might as well call it the "functional-atheists-who-self-identify-as-Catholic" vote, because that's what it is.
I guess being baptised and being Catholic doesn’t count unless one votes as you do, that doesn’t really work in voting demographics discussions.
It sure doesn’t help on this thread where we are discussing Catholics moving to the South, we have to assume that they will vote as Catholics always have in America.
Pray tell, on what basis is that "appearence" predicated if the polls you refer to are in dispute.
Furthermore, how was the data aggregated with respect to black protestants?
Not southern white Protestants, who were solidly Democrat until the 1960's.
Not black Protestants, who've been solidly Democrat since about the same time.
Golly, maybe that means -- get this! -- people change their political allegiances over time and maybe in the future we'll have a solidly Republican Catholic majority.
But maybe you'd rather not see that.
No, we do NOT talk about the black “Protestant” vote ... “all the time.”
I simply see no point in calling the voting behavior of people who don't vote like Catholics ought to vote the "Catholic vote". If their faith doesn't influence them to vote pro-life, why do you think it will influence them to vote any other way? Past history? I can assure you that my parents' vote for John F. Kennedy in 1960 has nothing whatsoever to do with how I vote today.
We had neighbors who would not speak to us once they found out we were Catholic, and I was sent home from work on one Ash Wednesday because I had gone to mass at 6 AM and had ashes on my forehead.
I had no idea that people could really be that anti-Catholic until I lived there.
The polls all agree that Catholics have voted three times for the Republican, the polls argue whether there have been three additional times, there is no dispute about the rest.
I haven’t seen a breakdown on black voting by religion, only on the black vote as a whole.
Only 19% of blacks belong to normal Protestant churches (Evangelical or mainline), the great majority belong to race based, “black Protestant churches”, and the rest are Catholic, non affiliated, no religion etc.
I was in the Army and married to a Catholic, and never saw any thing like that, I’m skeptical of America’s finest and most diverse people acting that way when most of us didn’t even care if a Chaplin was Catholic or Protestant.
The Protestant vote collectively has always been majority republican, the Catholic voter collectively has almost always been majority Democrat, the black vote switched in 1936, not in the 60s.
Aside from blacks there hasn’t bee a real shift in the voting of the groups, except that Catholics are less consistently Democrat than they have been, but that will probably not last for long Reagan was probably the high point for the Catholic vote in America.
So now you’re segregating what “kind” of Protestant Blacks happen to be?
How convenient.
“It’s not a difficult concept. “
Exactly. I wondered why this was “article-worthy” when it seemed self-evident
that the growth was just a shift in domicile... and not a result of the message
of Catholicism gaining traction among Southerners.
Is it significant that Catholicism is shifting to the south? If such a shift is significant,
please share what makes this lateral shift significant ... if you wish.
ampu
It seems that the first time the Catholics ever voted Republican was in 1972, or 1956 if we accept that disputed polling.
What has the Catholic vote been throughout our history if there is no such thing? How do we, as political people, address the Catholic vote if we pretend that it doesn't even exist except for those that already vote for us?
I see. So if a trend doesn’t conform to your prejudice (Catholic voting rather than Southern voting), it is a simple aberation that will switch back, and if it flat contradicts your general theory (black Protestants) you throw it away as inapplicable.
“Lies, damn lies, and statstics,” indeed!
Again the tone.
What is convenient? No one can explain the black vote, no one can even explain what black religion is. None of us really can explain what black religion is, except for the few that belong to regular Protestant churches and Catholic churches.
We do know that blacks always voted Republican, that in 1932 they gave FDR the typical 23% of their vote, but then in 1936, they gave him 71%, and they never voted Republican again.
How is it “self-evident” aside from a chauvanistic assumption Protestants don’t become Catholics, or Catholics don’t get converts?
The Southern vote includes Catholics as well, and blacks are always included as part of the Protestant voting numbers.
Did you get that, the 92% Democrat black Protestant vote is always included in Protestant totals.
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