The Disappearing God Gap
| When |
Mar 03, 2010
from 04:00 PM to 05:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Where | McConnell Center, Room W231, Ekstrom Library |
| Contact Name | GlyptusAnn Grider Jones |
| Contact Phone | 502-852-8811 |
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The McConnell Center welcomes Corwin Smidt (Calvin College), co-author of "The Disappearing God Gap? Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election," to the University of Louisville. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods.
The event is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required.
About the Book
After the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004, the "God Gap" became a hotly debated political issue. Religious voters were seen as the key to Bush's victory, and Democrats began scrambling to reach out to them. Four years later, however, with the economy in a tailspin on election day, religion barely seemed to register on people's radar screens. In this book, a team of scholars digs deeper to examine the role religion played in the 2008 campaign. They take a long view, placing the election in historical context and looking at the campaign as a whole, from the primaries through all the way through election day. At the heart of their analysis is data gleaned from a national survey conducted by the authors, in which voters were interviewed in the spring of 2008 and then re-interviewed after the election.
About the Lecturer
Smidt earned a bachelor of arts in political science and history from Northwestern College (Iowa) in 1968. He went on to earn a master of arts (1971)and Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Iowa in political science. Professor Smidt joined the political science faculty at Calvin in 1977 after a two-year stint at Quincy College.
He is the author of 13 books, 59 book chapters, 33 scholarly essays and 27 other publications. Published in November 2008, Smidt co-wrote the book Pews, Prayers, and Participation: Religion and Civic Responsibility. He also co-published the book Church, State and Public Justice: Five Views (InterVarsity Press, 2007), in which he considers the mission of the church and the purpose of the government in solving social injustices from a reformed perspective. In March 2008 Smidt received a $96,800 grant from the Bradley Foundation for the research project “Religion, Civic Responsibility, and Renewing the American Experiment: Stage Two.” He continues to serve, as he has since 1997, as the director of the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics.