But they were wrong, because black Christianity, to its immense credit, was more concerned with social justice than moral censure. But under Bush's leadership, the Republicans have wised up. Say what you want about the public policy merits of school vouchers and government funding of religious charities, but these are the first Republican initiatives in decades that capture the spirit of black, as well as white, Christianity. It is the crusade against poverty. Now that Republicans are finally linking religious faith with concern for the poor, that old fault line within the Democratic Party may finally start to make itself noticed.
Polls show that a majority of blacks support vouchers.
But what's more noteworthy is the generational breakdown of that support. According to a 1997 poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 19 percent of blacks 65 and older supported vouchers. Black politicians still generally oppose vouchers, but if these numbers are any indication, those politicians will come under mounting pressure in the next few years to change their tune. Polling is harder to find on funding for faith-based charities. But a 1999 survey by Mark Chavez, a sociologist then at the University of Arizona, showed that black congregations were more than twice as likely as white ones to say they would apply for federal funds.