The Role of Manufacturing in South Bend’s Decline

“We are all watching the Titanic steaming full speed ahead right before

that diamond-hard iceberg tears off all the steel rivets from her skin.

If you're not aghast, you're just not paying attention.”

 

James Lewis, American Thinker, April 5, 2009

South Bend was once an auto-making city.  At Studebaker, costs remained out of line, causing the company to collapse after a long and proud history dating back over a hundred years before its ultimate demise.   Much of the blame was placed on higher labor costs and, indirectly, on labor-management relations.  While Studebaker’s failure was a sad – and most devastating – end to a glorious chapter in South Bend history, the pride of a people who had front row seats to the development of the Automotive Industry in America should not be forgotten.  Thankfully, local visionaries knew that this history should be preserved in the form of the Studebaker Museum.  The past has much to teach us, even a half century later.

Those who tour the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana walk away with the knowledge that Indiana, not Detroit, was the cradle of the Automotive Industry in America.  And it was here, in South Bend, Indiana that the first large-scale, American automotive company would fail. Democrat President John F. Kennedy did not feel led to bail out a failing Studebaker in the early 1960s. U.S. Manufacturing in general, and the U.S. auto-makers in particular, are still based on WWII notions of how the world is ordered.  Domestic automakers never evolved.  They remain a relic of the post-WWII business model.  Our domestic automotive industry has been in forty years of progressive decline.   We aren't talking about a couple of bad business quarters – we are talking decades.

U.S. automakers die so quickly when trouble comes because labor unions have increased industry vulnerability.  Federal Express pays box bouncers 15 dollars an hour.  Ford paid the same workers 40 dollars an hour plus a pension, health care, and educational benefits.  Unions use work rules to make companies and industries less productive than they otherwise would be.   Union goals try to keep employments at least even, and if possible increase it, regardless of production levels.  But the way economic growth happens – the way we become a more prosperous society – is to produce more with the same number of people. 

Government refuses to take responsibility for its role in the decline of Manufacturing, when they are the primary architects of that erosion. High corporate tax structures plus legislation that was hostile to Manufacturing enterprise, forced manufacturers to seek more industry-friendly sites in Southwestern United States and in foreign countries.  South Bend and St. Joseph County claim no accountability for local attrition of the manufacturing heritage chronicled in Primer on the Perpetuation of Power (http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/96338-primer-perpetuation-power.html ).  Local government officials have worked to replace $15 per hour manufacturing jobs with $8 per hour retail jobs, forcing the South Bend population into a descent into the abyss.  Today, one out of every six people in South Bend live below the poverty limit.  The reason why Manufacturing is important to any economy is easily explained: Manufacturing ranks low among all business sectors in concentrating wealth.  By contrast, Retail ranks high in concentrating of wealth.  Lest anyone miss the point, South Bend citizens’ culpability lies totally in giving more attention to words rather than to actions.  Thus explains why local bureaucrats with records of failure keep getting re-elected to office.

Jobs 

“John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the

number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be,

as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs, j-o-b-s, jobs.”

 

Vice President Joseph Biden

To say that data on historical, local employment is difficult to find is an understatement – and that will be addressed later – but using the 100 Largest Employers’ Lists from five recent years is instructive.  Both the number of manufacturers in this upper-end group and the number of jobs these largest employers provide have seen steady decline.  Recent trajectory can provide clues on future manufacturing health.

The above chart clearly demonstrates that employment at South Bend’s largest manufacturers – the source of a large portion of higher-paying jobs – has been steadily decreasing.  Mishawaka, the other large city in St. Joseph County, has not fared significantly better as the following chart illustrates.

Notice that from the beginning of 2001, to the end of 2008, or about eight years, half a dozen manufacturers, representing about 1,400 jobs, closed their Mishawaka operations.

A truly great man came to South Bend and talked to us on May 17, 1981, but unfortunately few listened.  His message was prophetic with regard to South Bend, over two decades later.  He said, in part:

“The people have made it plain already. They want an end to excessive government intervention in their lives and in the economy, an end to the burdensome and unnecessary regulations and a punitive tax policy that does take “from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.'' They want a government that cannot only continue to send men across the vast reaches of space and bring them safely home, but that can guarantee that you and I can walk in the park of our neighborhood after dark and get safely home.  And finally, they want to know that this Nation has the ability to defend itself against those who would seek to pull it down.”

President Ronald Reagan, May 17, 1981

Like seasons that come and then pass to yield to subsequent seasons, hope for manufacturing jobs creation in St. Joseph County springs eternal.  Recent seasons of hope occasioned with the MANA announcement (March 29, 2008) and the dreams that “innovation” would lead to “ignition” of nanotechnology commercialization in Ignition Park (January 6, 2009).  South Bend’s 14-story “Field of Dreams” sits on the corner of Jefferson Street and Lafayette Blvd.  Local government reasoned that if it were built, they – employees – would come.   In a corollary to Parkinson’s Law (i.e., Work expands to fill the time available to complete it.), it made sense that government bureaucracy, as measured by headcount, would expand to fill the real estate provided for it.  And local government did expand from 1995 until about 2005 when the party came to an end:

But will Manufacturing develop similarly ?  If Ignition-Park-like facilities are built to accommodate manufacturing operations, will industries come in “Field of Dreams” fashion ?   Recall that the Football Hall of Fame was built “on the come”, and visitors did not materialize as expected.  It is important for everyone to recognize the barriers to manufacturing in South Bend – high-tech or otherwise – to preclude raising expectations beyond what can be achieved.  To provide direction, here are the barriers to manufacturers siting in South Bend:

High Crime.  South Bend cannot hide from its high crime statistics.  With the high costs of a new jail, court operations costs, attorney costs to prosecute and defend crime, costs to maintain the incarcerated, etc., crime has become a high-revenue industry in South Bend.  The City can either lose the crime, or forget about favorable siting considerations.

High Taxation.  Someone must pay for South Bend’s free spending ways.  If 17 percent of South Bend is living in poverty, tax revenues collected within the City are insufficient to operate municipal government.  Due to steadily declining South Bend population, in concert with declining corporate tax base, homeowners and businesses in Walkerton, Lakeville, North Liberty, Granger, and the remainder of the County help pay for the City’s largess.  South Bend can't expect the outlying county to fund city government forever.  Like Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”  Newly arriving manufacturers would be expected to pay a large portion through direct and indirect taxation.

Low Quality of Life.  Blighted neighborhoods, high and rising taxation, low wages due to flight of jobs in the manufacturing sector, and high levels of crime contribute to low quality of life in South Bend.  Manufacturers seeking new sites do not favor declining neighborhoods.

Self-Serving Government.  The term, “public servant” has become an anachronism in South Bend.  Bureaucrats serve themselves, not the public.  Three of many examples:

·                    When the critical Economic Development Director position became vacant, instead of recruiting someone with a record of successful manufacturing development to grow living-wage jobs and reduce City poverty, a buddy of the Mayor was placed in this critical position. 

·                    When South Bend officials complained that new property tax caps would fail to fund the City’s spending, our own State Representative and Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, Patrick Bauer, made sure that homeowners and businesses in St. Joseph County would pay one half percent more than the folks in Elkhart, LaPorte, Marshall, and 87 other counties in Indiana.  One half percent on a $100,000 assessed valuation is much, much more than the $25 wheel tax that raised everyone’s ire.  Smoke-filled, backroom politicians like Pat Bauer favor the property tax because this form of taxation allows the most abuse.  If more tax revenue is wanted, just hire appraisers who promise the highest appraisals.  Are property values declining due to national recession, oversupply of housing, or increasing neighborhood blight ?  No problem -- just continue to tax based upon historical market prices that have no relevance to present valuations.  Why do you think that the Repeal Property Taxes movement inspired by Eric Miller ( http://www.advanceamerica.com/rpt/ ) received zero consideration by Speaker Bauer ?    

·                    Commissioner Mark Dobson stood alone in his advocacy of combining City and County governments in St. Joseph County, Indiana to increase government efficiency and control runaway City and County spending.  Following Mark Dobson's departure from County government, you can kiss more efficient and less costly government goodbye.  When commercial and industrial enterprises want to quickly reduce costs, they reduce their head counts.  Local government realizes that the flight of the middle class out of the City created a Gerrymandered district that guarantees victory of Democrat candidates.  Combining City and County governments would dilute the overwhelming Democrat majority within South Bend.  By keeping separate City and County governments, the Democrat administration can perpetuate their power, while forcing the Republican content of the County at large to maintain high spending through high property taxation. Local government bureaucrats don’t mind continuing financial support from county voters who are disenfranchised in voting for South Bend officials.  Once again, the personal agendas of South Bend and St. Joseph County officials take priority over the ultimate good of the electorate they supposedly serve.

The only people local officials "represent" are themselves.  In business lexicon, they “trade for their own accounts”.  And Manufacturers considering siting here are justifiably concerned that their interests will be trumped by the self-interests of local bureaucrats as the City’s track record has so eloquently demonstrated. 

Union-Government Partnership.  Manufacturers have a chance of establishing successful relations with labor unions.  But when unions and government partner, manufacturers are faced with overwhelming force.  Here is this partnership: Unions force their members to fund Democratic party elections.  In a quid pro quo, the elected officials then enact ordinances that favor the unions.  Primer on the Perpetuation of Power describes how South Bend engages in an endless building program, funded by all county residents through state and local taxes, to repay the unions for their election support.  Thus, union memberships are captive constituencies.

Government Interference in Setting Wages.  Language in the recently passed Tax Abatement Ordinance is one more example of government mistakenly believing that Manufacturers relish the idea of government suggesting wage levels.  Manufacturers want to operate their businesses, free of unnecessary government intervention and attempts at micromanagement.  South Bend and St. Joseph County bureaucrats want to take the “free” out of “free enterprise”.

Government Largess.  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.in_southbend_msa.htm) show the South Bend – Mishawaka metropolitan area had 139,000 nonfarm employees in January 2009, the latest month for which figures are available.  The same data shows 17,300 government employees for the same period.  12.4% of nonfarm employees – or nearly 1 out of every 8 – in our metropolitan area are employed by government.  Large government often translates to intrusive government, and government hostile to Capitalism.  Bloated governments don’t understand lean manufacturing.  And large governments translate to high “carrying costs” in the form of taxation.

Decline in Workforce Quality.  According to local news reports, South Bend high school drop-out rates are at an eye-popping 48%.  High-tech manufacturers as well as traditional industries are going to think twice before committing resources to a community that doesn’t reciprocate with basic preparation.

Over-Reliance on Legacy.  Legacy can be used to subtly suggest direction.  South Bend officials are quick to invoke local manufacturing legacy (http://www.innovationparknd.com/news/10809-south-bend-s-legacy-of-innovation-sparks-ignition-park).  However, Manufacturers seeking to site are more interested in what trajectory the last several years imply than in dwelling upon our storied past.  And Manufacturers in the process of siting may not see much to give them optimism about our direction.

Manufacturing Friendliness. Local government officials fail to differentiate between business categories and are just as satisfied to create retail jobs as to create manufacturing jobs.  Many see no particular urgency to preserve the manufacturing jobs the City has, much less, attracting new manufacturing jobs.  With an indifference to the need for manufacturing, it is difficult to imagine its reception.  And in the absence of affirmative attention, is not difficult to understand why manufacturers don’t feel welcomed.

St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce Leadership

South Bend government has failed to maintain and grow the capitalization of its citizen and business tax bases, choosing instead to “game” these bases with innovative ways to claim increasing portions of their wealth.  And this strategy has been an unmitigated failure as officials have resorted to complaining, later replaced by threatening to cut services.  The City has all of the appearances of a campaign in full retreat, and clueless on how to reverse its declining fortunes. 

A primary principle in any turnaround is “You cannot control that which you do not measure.”  If direction is unknown, then how can anyone know where to head from present position ?  The stark reality is that South Bend is flying blind.  The City is not unlike a flock without a shepherd.  The logical choice for business development leadership is the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce since, as an organization independent from local government, it is not subject to influence or politization by City or County.  Here are five suggestions to restore business tracking to its rightful place in informing Economic Development 1) mission, 2) goals, 3) strategies, and 4) tactics:

Restore the high priority for business metrics.  If the Chamber of Commerce does not fulfill the function of collecting, recording, and reporting business metrics, then no other entity will, and South Bend will likely meet with disaster.  Remember that an overarching principle indicates that economic well-being cannot be controlled unless it is measured.

Acquire better quality data.  Data the Chamber has been reporting in their Top 100 Employers Listing is suspect under elementary scrutiny.  Two examples: 2400 employees were reported for AM General in mid-2007.  Eighteen months later, the number of employees was again reported as 2400.  What is the probability that a very large enterprise would not change its employment over 18 months ?  Consider that gas hit $4 per gallon in early 2008 and sales of low-gas-mileage vehicles such as AM General’s slowed to a trickle during the last half of 2008.  Is it reasonable that headcounts at AM General were not reduced from their mid-2007 levels ?  Secondly, Honeywell’s employment was reported as 777 in mid-2007, and also again in December 2008.  No employees retired in 18 months ?  No new employees we added to the payroll ?  How probable is no change in employment of a large enterprise over an 18-month period ?  The data that the Chamber reports needs to be reliable.  Presently, their information does not appear to pass a reasonable degree of scrutiny.

Enlarge database scope.  The 1995 Chamber employment publication was entitled Firms Employing 50 or more in St. Joseph County and ran some 7 pages, including about 350 employers.  The 2001 listing was similar, but included both “firms and organizations”.  By 2005, the monitoring of employment in the County was no longer considered an important function and was abridged to only the 100 top employers. With little or no priority on monitoring employment, no one in a position to administer South Bend or the County really know what is happening in job development, with any reasonable detail.  We are flying blind from an unknown past, into an unknown future.  More – not less – needs to be known about the dynamics of employment over time, therefore the Chamber must return to the 1995/2001 scope of data.

Improve category tracking.  A minimal amount of analysis needs to be done so as to highlight employment levels by category to allow tracking the progress of primary business sectors.  Monitored sectors should include, at minimum:        

Manufacturing

Retail (Department Stores, Grocery, Restaurants, Specialty)

Medical (Hospitals, Health Care Services, Physician Group Practices)

Education (Public Schools, Private Schools, Colleges & Universities)

Financial (Banks, Credit Unions, Insurance Companies)

Warehousing & Distribution

Government

Contractors

Media / Publishing

Transportation (Trucking, Freight, Parcel Services)

Mental Health, Social Services, and Counseling

Senior Housing / Assisted Living / Nursing / Disabled

Utilities

Professional Services (Accounting, Marketing, Legal)

Business Services (Uniforms, Foodservice, Printing, Employment)

Hotels

Get the public involved.  Local government officials may believe that the public cannot be trusted with this information.  However, we have this backwards.  When citizens trusted local government, their complacency emboldened local bureaucrats to sell them down the river.  It is the Government that has demonstrated it cannot be trusted.  And citizens need to know more details about job creation to help them vote effectively.  If the Chamber of Commerce really is independent of City and County government as they claim, then job development data should be politics-neutral and the Chamber should have no compulsion to hide this important information from the public.

Prosperity to Poverty

Manufacturing is not our enemy; it is our friend.  Manufacturing is not a target to be subjugated into submission.  Manufacturing was pivotal in establishing the prosperity of South Bend as discussed in Primer on the Perpetuation of Power, but it also is pivotal in moving a once-proud city closer to life support as reviewed in this report.  Government must understand its role in fostering replacement of enterprises that naturally fail in a capitalistic economy.  For example, the Obama Administration is trying to kill the F-22 Raptor, Advanced Fighter program – vital for 21^st century U.S. air superiority against upgraded Russian air combat capabilities – that supports much of the employment of South Bend’s largest manufacturer, Honeywell Aircraft Landing Systems.  What has South Bend done to strongly and proactively affirm Manufacturing ?  A meaningful down payment to encourage new manufacturers to site here would be to increase manufacturing representation on the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors from its present 5 out of 36, to at least 9 out of 36.

Time is running out for Pat Bauer, Stephen Luecke, and Butch Morgan, public and political figures who control the direction of St. Joseph County and South Bend.  St. Joseph County, Indiana is home to well over 250,000 people.  It is just a matter of time until someone recognizes that these Emperors have no Clothes.  And once this discovery is made, our triumvirate may find itself dethroned.  South Bend has been incompetently managed, resulting in devastating loss in tax base from a confluence of 1) the ongoing extinction of high-paying manufacturing jobs, 2) decreasing number of taxpayers as the City moves from its peak population of 132,000, ever closer to a population below 100,000, and 3) growing poverty.  South Bend is on public welfare, with citizens outside of South Bend being forced to subsidize the City.  Without an Extreme Makeover, soon, South Bend is vulnerable to one out of every four of its residents falling below the poverty limit.  South Bend is a City worth saving from the affliction of poverty.  But without a fundamental change in direction, the City’s future can be the joining the fellowship of growing poverty in American cities: 

Top Ten Cities (250,000 or less population) with Highest Rate of Poverty 

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey 2007 

Top Ten Cities (250,000 or more population) with the Highest Poverty Rate

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povfact6.shtml

Stephen Paul Leykauf

April 6, 2009

Note from the article’s author:  If you feel that this article has any merit, please forward it or pass a hard copy of it to a friend, relative, neighbor, or co-worker.

Dear Pastor / Father / Reverend:

             The purpose of this letter is to express my concern for the vanishing relevance of the Church in America.  I am a most unworthy vessel to convey this message.  However, if I failed to advance this discussion, it might very well be that no one else would.   This letter will discuss 1) where we are and 2) how we got here.  It will frame the issues. 

Where Are We ? 

We live at a wonderful time.  Some of the people alive today will surely see the dream of the ages – the beating of swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning-hooks.  They will witness hydrogen power formed from the virtually limitless waters of the seas – the same waters mentioned in the second verse of Genesis.  However, we also confront very imposing challenges. What direction we are headed as a nation can be seen from the rising tide of liberal thought opposing fundamental Church belief.  Three examples: 

The Ten Commandments, which are the essence and the foundation of all law, originate from what Jesus identified as the two greatest commandments.  The second greatest commandment, "love thy neighbor", therefore inspires all law that relates to how we live together as a community, nation, and world.  In contrast, Liberal practitioners universally accept the destruction of their neighbors.  They assent to both destruction of the unborn and personal destruction of the born.  Recall the very public thrashing and personal destruction of a fine American, Judge Robert Bork.  And when dedicated public servant, Dan Quayle, was destroyed.  And the trashing and personal destruction of private citizen, Paula Jones.  Thankfully, the personal destruction attempt on Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas failed.  The attempt to destroy Governor Sarah Palin is ongoing.  When Joe the Plumber challenged liberal thought, liberals dug up dirt on him with the intent of personal destruction.  The parallels between today's culture of personal destruction and McCarthyism of the late 1940's is very interesting:

·  Personal destruction, like McCarthyism, is all about bearing "false witness against thy neighbor."

·  Legitimacy of personal destruction and McCarthyism hang on the fallacy that you can hate your neighbor, while loving your country.

· In both personal destruction and McCarthyism, opinions are often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and claims of the attacker are often greatly exaggerated.

·  Both phenomena affect all levels of society – making everyone vulnerable to attack – and were / are the source of a great conflict in the United States.

· And both constitute a purposeful erosion of our foundation by striking at our basic rights as guaranteed under our founding documents.

· The objective of personal destruction, like that of McCarthyism, is the silencing of the person through personal assassination.

· Both are not subject to law and are constrained only by the pure conscience and a kindness which hungers and thirsts for the ultimate good.  Therefore, both comprise a framework that over-arches a societal law based upon love of God, neighbor, and country.

Personal destruction is particularly nasty.  Our culture of personal destruction continues the theme of arbitrary selection – abortion arbitrarily decides which children live and which die; financial bailouts arbitrarily decide which companies survive and which are allowed to close; personal destruction arbitrarily selects who among us will no longer remain a viable, contributing member of our society.  In Darwinian natural selection, survival of the fittest is favored, while arbitrary selection often deprives the survival of the brightest and best America offers as illustrated by the above personage.  Arbitrary selection appeals to a depravity below even our most basic instincts.

Arbitrary selection finds its origin in liberal philosophy.  Liberals cannot be accused of having no vision.  Their vision is a pathway to power which tramples over – and vigorously stomps upon – America's foundation as expressed in our founding documents.  It can be said that "not all liberals are personal assassins, but all personal assassins are liberals." 

          Much media commentary has been devoted to decry bullies in the schoolyard, however, America is very accepting of thugs in suits inhabiting the offices of Congress.  When wolves of personal destruction attack, America's citizenry often fail to close ranks around targets to shield them from harm.  In Christ's interpretation of the Mosaic Law, found in his famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He insisted that the gravest thing of all is to destroy a man's reputation and to take away his good name. 

Barack Obama recently attempted to put on the mantle of Abraham Lincoln by quoting "A house divided cannot stand".  But Lincoln would most certainly also have agreed that "A house without a foundation cannot stand."  Where our First Amendment seeks to encourage the marketplace of ideas in the public square, personal destruction is all about silencing the sources of a diverse discourse.  Liberals like Obama want to impose a convoluted censorship by precluding dialog which is adversarial to liberal thinking, and eliminate those who espouse divergent thinking though the tactic of personal destruction.  We are seeing the beginning of the end of our fundamental First Amendment right of free speech.  Our other basic freedoms will follow a like destiny.

The idea of a foundation is stability.  The Lord and his commandments do not change.  "I am the Lord. I change not."  "I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."  Liberal philosophy is aggressive in its support of change.  Liberals seek to overturn the morals, ethics, and character expressed in Church orthodoxy.  Their message of change has been a stairway to political power.  There no longer are bedrock principles that inform a moral compass within the human.  All morality, which guides human behavior, becomes situational.

Finally, scripture teaches, "What you sow, you shall surely reap."  But liberals seek to turn this natural law on its ear.  They want to eliminate the consequences of wrongdoing.  A society can most easily be destroyed by anarchy resulting from depriving that culture of any semblance of justice.  There are numerous examples of the the Illinois form of law which Illinois Senator Obama brings to the national fore.  Liberals' poster boy is Richard Spec.  After butchering eight lovely student nurses in 1968, the State of Illinois rewarded this lowest of reprobates a comfortable cell, three square meals per day, a jailhouse lover, a video camera, and all of the coke he could snort.  Liberals hope to make this is the kind of lawlessness and injustice common, nationwide.

There is perhaps no better case for a godless, ultra-liberal Barack Obama than the short piece written by Kevin McCullough at: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52998.   One of the best explanations of why Christians should not have voted for Obama is Janet Folger Porter's article that can be linked to at:  http://wnd.com/index.php?pageId=79276.  A nation which predominantly claims Christianity has selected a godless leader to orchestrate their collective future.

How Did We Get Here ?

General elections provide glimpses of what Americans value every four years.  In 2008, economics (60%), the Iraq war (10%), terrorism (9%), and health care (9%) were deciding values.  Character was a non-issue.  It was also not an issue in 1996 when serial woman attacker Bill Clinton was returned to office.  In this era, character has become passe.  Eighteen million Americans voted that the only First Lady to be indicted for crimes should be our nation's leader.  Martin Luther King's dream that people would be judged by the content of their character is a joke.   

We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done.

--  from Billy Graham's Prayer for Our Nation

A confluence of factors and events led to a majority of the population professing Christianity to vote for a Godless candidate.  A look at three dominant Christian groupings is revealing:

American Evangelicals

One in three white evangelical voters who participated in Super Tuesday primaries in Missouri and Tennessee voted Democratic. General election exit polls indicated that 26% of American voters called themselves evangelical or born-again Christians and 25% of these voted for Obama.  Therefore, about 1 out of every 16 ( about 6.5% ) of the 125 million voters was a Bible-believing Obama voter.  Obama won with 53% of the popular vote.  It can be seen from these numbers that Christians helped significantly in electing Obama.  American evangelicals were not able to unify after a divisive primary season, with no consensus candidate emerging as a favorite.  Evangelical leaders were either indifferent or non-participative during the weeks running up to the election.  Dr. James Dobson, at first against the candidacy of John McCain, gave less-than-enthusiastic support after Sarah Palin joined the ticket.  The more and more Christians learned about Obama, the closer and closer was their support for McCain.  Eventual support of McCain came too little; too late.

          According to surveys, the biggest white evangelical movement away from the far right has been those under 30: Fifteen percent have migrated away, but only about 5 percent have moved to the Democratic Party.  This mirrors the overall population where a little over 2 out of every 3 voters in the 18 to 24 age group voted for Obama.  And this generation is America's future !

          In addition to lack of unity behind a single candidate, Evangelicals are also divided on the scope of its moral agenda.  The National Association of Evangelicals ousted their lobbyist who promoted a broad moral agenda that helped define American Evangelicals' public witness.  Meanwhile, some seek to narrow the social agenda – action viewed as an unbiblical path, to make it better serve a conservative political agenda.

God being kicked out of the public schools, along with declining Biblical teaching from the pulpit (expository preaching), returned Americans to a pre-Gutenberg level of grounding in biblical principals.  The ignorance of Christian pastors in the subject of Civics led many to avoid guiding their flocks – they failed to understand that the Constitution provides for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. It restricts the government from restricting religious practice. The church is not the government and is therefore quite free to express its religious views, teachings and doctrine. If those have overtones that impact the sphere of public discussion and behavior, there is no prohibition of that activity.  World-renowned Scottish, New Testament interpreter, William Barclay, perhaps said it best: 

" . .. . the Church, when it really is the Church, is bound to be the conscience of the nation and the conscience of society.  Where there is good, the Church must praise; where there is evil the Church must condemn – and inevitably, men will try to silence the voice of conscience." 

We are seeing liberal voice and liberal action seeking to silence the voice of conscience in America.

Meanwhile, it is NOT consistent with Christian belief to conclude that religion and faith have no place in politics or in the shaping of public discourse and policy..

          A practical principle of personal testimony is found in Matthew: "By their works ye shall know them."  But lost in Christendom is the idea of corporate testimony – the testimony of groups.  For example, consider the testimony of the Christian Church in America.  This testimony is that money and race trump character and godliness.  The Church in America has become lessened in informing moral conviction and, sadly, the Church has been a participant in much of that marginalization. 

The Roman Catholic Church

One of the few constants in the Church has been the seemingly solid Catholic stand for the unborn.  To a greater degree than any other faith, Catholics demonstrated their embrace of life being one of the inalienable rights of mankind referred to in the United States Declaration of Independence.  Inalienable rights are natural rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society.  Non-Catholics greatly respected the only denomination that refused to compromise on what was universally recognized as a core issue. Viewed as a most important tenet of the faith is the sanctity of human life - hence its stand against abortion.  Then came the 2008 general election when 50% to 65% – depending upon whose statistics you believe – of Catholics voted for Obama.  According to the Barna Group, Catholics voted 56% for Obama (Born-again Christians voted 42% for Obama.) Cars were seen proudly displaying "Catholics for Obama" bumper stickers.  While Obama professed openly to be a Christian, his whole career voting record shows he's comfortable with even the most extreme forms of abortion and would block all attempts to limit them.  And Obama kept the charade that he was a Christian until November 5 to enable a sucker-punch to at least 50% of what we had always perceived as a Christian community.  Obama's cafeteria-style approach to Christianity found kindred spirit with the many so-called Catholics who for some reason want to be part of the Church but do not want to follow its teachings. 

In an ecclesiastical lynching, TV and newspaper liberal media defamed the Catholic church's moral authority. The Church was positioned in the liberal media as "pedophile infested" while these same media under-reported on worse conditions in the public schools.  In the over 50 years between 1950 and 2002, a total of 4,400 priests were accused of misconduct. Compare that to a recent Associated Press article that "found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct."  The AP also reported, "One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade." See http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2007/10/teacher_ sex_abuse_series_day_o.html.

Obviously, a Catholic Church is a far safer place for kids than a public school. 

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id= 6041&CFID=13342983&CFTOKEN=72470259

The Pope's position was if you vote for a pro-abortion candidate specifically because of their pro-abortion stance, you may not receive communion.  But if you vote for that candidate for other "proportionate reasons," you may still be eligible to receive communion..  The Holy Father's understanding of Canon Laws 915, 1329, and 1398, lays out the Church's law on abortion and communion.  Therefore, the belief that any vote for any pro-abortion politician when a pro-life alternative is available, is not supported by Canon Law or the Pope's interpretation of it. 

          Father Jay Scott Newman wrote:

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."  Simple translation: If you voted for the candidate that supports evil, you need to get right with God.

The Diocese of Charleston would not support its own priest who had the audacity to stand for his beliefs, and withdrew its support of a courageous Father Jay Scott Newman who was faithful to his calling:

Charleston, Nov 15, 2008 / 01:16 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Charleston is distancing itself from the actions of a Catholic priest in Greenville, South Carolina, who made remarks in a letter to parishioners suggesting that those who voted for Barack Obama should not receive Holy Communion until they go to Confession.  Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin, Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, said on Friday afternoon that the Catholic Church's "clear, moral teaching on the evil of abortion" has been "pulled into the partisan political arena" by the priest's letter which was posted on the web site of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville.

In a fall into the chasm of unintended consequences, the Pope opened the theological door just a crack, and the unlatched door was forced wide open.  In a practical demonstration of Revelation 22:18, addition to the scriptures was made and the plague of godless leadership was visited upon us.

          Then there was a well-coordinated effort to provide cover for liberal Catholics when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked on nationwide TV to Tom Brokaw and made the stunning announcement that there has been debate in the Church for centuries about abortion.  Unfortunately, priests of courage and conviction, like Father Newman of Greenville, were too few.  Lacking the guidance of pastoral shepherds, many parish flocks fell victim to false bishops Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, Christopher Dodd, Patrick Leahy, Tom Harkin, and John Kerry who had long since demonstrated spiritual bankruptcy.

The African-American Church

The heritage of African Americans is decidedly Christian.  Many of the most powerful Christian voices in America have come from the African-American community.  Up until the present, the African American community chose its leaders from its ranks of spiritual leaders.  The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) originated, by its name, as a Christian organization.  It was formed by two ministers of the gospel, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.   Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.  Taking a page out of MLK's playbook, Obama will take the Oath of office using Lincoln's inauguartion Bible, retrace some of his steps, and generally cast himself as a second Abraham Lincoln.  Meanwhile, Pastor Rick Warren will be cast as a reincarnation of Billy Graham, who has led millions to a saving relationship with Jesus and lives in a backwoods North Carolina log cabin, with rocking chairs on the front porch.  Neither Lincoln nor Graham had ". . . a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof . . ." ( II Timothy)   Whether or not the Obama and Warren extreme makeovers stick remains to be seen.

Martin Luther King's assertion that people should be judged not by the color of their skin – the outward – but by the content of their characters – the inward – is a remarkable application of Samuel's "Man looketh upon the outward countenance, but God looketh upon the heart."

But then Liberal change ushered in a new order..  The same liberals who complained about evangelical pastors ministering moral conduct in living and voting looked the other way when thousands of predominately African-American churches and their pastors used their pulpits to praise Barack Obama, and not the Savior of the World.  T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other African American leaders were silent in defense of the gospel, choosing instead to sell Biblical values for 30 pieces of silver.  The outward – race – would trump the inward – character and godliness.  In a clear triumph of the new order over the old order, 97% of African-Americans voted for an African-American Barack Obama – within 3% of unanimity.  Thus the beginning of the civil rights movement in America can be traced to Rosa Parks in the bus, and its end can be identified as Martin Luther King's dream of judging people by the content of their characters being thrown under the bus. 

        Jesus said that we cannot be right with God until we are right with men (Matthew 5: 23-24).  It should be obvious that physical and personal destruction of our fellow men does not engender any measure of right relationship.  It is troubling that the Church has lost its ability to make loving our neighbor a high priority.

God's plan for the Church as expressed in Malachi was that His house be a storehouse.  We have departed from that model.  Today, the Church is consumed in building its ediface, while care of the widows and orphans has been defaulted to our government.  As a culture, we failed to get that one right.  But The Almighty is a God of second chances.  Whether or not the Church will re-engage our culture – with demonstrable fruits – will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Doxology

         The ancients had it right.  They were in so much awe of the name of God that they gave him a name with only soft consonants.  Like Yaweh.  They feared to even mention His name.  Today, we have altogether become flippant.  We flip His name around with little regard for the reverence due a precious, wonderful, holy, and awesome God.  But forbid that this should be so !  May His glorious name be praised forever and ever.

Amen.

Stephen Paul Leykauf