A post-election poll conducted by Zogby International confirmed that American voters have a far broader definition of “moral values” than the far-right would like us to believe. When asked which “moral issue most influenced your vote”, 42% of respondents chose the war in Iraq, while only 13% said abortion and 9% said same-sex marriage.

This is the same Zogby that’s trying desparately to save face after totally blowing the election prediction. Signers of this petition may have been duped.

Right now, neither party gets the values question right. The Democrats seem uncomfortable with the language of faith and values, preferring in recent decades the secular approach of restricting such matters to the private sphere. But where would we be if Martin Luther King Jr. had kept his faith to himself? The separation of church and state does not require the segregation of moral language and values from public life. The Republicans are comfortable with the language of religion and values. But the GOP wants to narrow the focus to hot-button social issues it then uses as wedges in political campaigns, while ignoring or obstructing the application of such values where they would threaten its agenda.

I like the way Jim Wallis thinks. I don’t agree with all of his points in “Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a clue“, but it’s nice to hear another voice in the desert of the center.