By Alissa Griffith

In 2004, the choice was easy. Moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage dominated the political discourse.

Then, like many other evangelical black youth, I dubbed myself a “moral conservative” and joined the larger group of evangelicals that carried President Bush into the White House for a second term.

Four years later, I am still the young, black, evangelical, “moral conservative” that I was in 2004 – but this time I supported President-elect Barack Obama.

That may surprise and upset those evangelicals who are blindly married to the Republican party and demand that only pro-life candidates hold political office in America (never mind those candidates’ positions on other policies or their personal character). But if my choice surprised them, therein lies the problem.

Alissa Griffith, former columnist for The Post and a senior at Ohio University

Who placed issues that evangelicals should care about in hierarchical order, anyway?
Furthermore, who defined “morality” so narrowly? What about the social problems that plague Americans?

My vote for Obama was not a dismissal of morality in favor of social justice. It was an acknowledgement that morality encompasses much more than just abortion and same-sex marriage issues. Based on the election rhetoric, Obama had exhibited his competency in social justice issues while McCain was just trying to figure out why it matters.

Unemployment, a poor economy, an expensive war, fatherless homes, high incarceration rates, poor education and a lack of access to higher education are at the forefront of all voters’ minds. The presidential debates exposed John McCain’s illiteracy on these issues. This is of more importance  to black young evangelicals than the larger evangelical group because these issues disproportionately affect our families and our community.

The GOP has ignored these issues and instead leads evangelicals on with the promise of overturning Roe v. Wade. Interestingly enough, we have had four Republican presidents since 1973 and yet abortion remains legal. Therefore, banking an entire election on one issue that will likely remain unchanged is ridiculous. While evangelicals as a whole wage a war on Washington demanding abortions are made illegal, as a young black evangelical, I hope for other things to be changed as well.

I still think it is important to halt the outrageous number of abortions performed in this country, but we also are acutely aware of the plight of those people who did not have abortions and are struggling to raise their children in the inner cities of this country. I  believe in prayer in schools, but disagree with abstinence-only education. Like many of my fellow young black evangelicals, I think that welfare is not the key to success, but I understand that some children will not eat without it.

Some young black evangelicals roll our eyes at accusations of racism, but we can see the class differences and know that minorities populate the lower classes of America. I believe that people should pay for their crimes, but I know that capital punishment and longer prison sentencing are the fate of a disproportional amount of black men. I don’t believe in handouts, but know that many black people simply can’t afford higher education. In my conversations with other young black evangelicals, I find a common thread: We believe in morality, but believe the definition is too narrow.

When it comes to social justice, I don’t expect the president to swoop in on his white horse waving a magic wand, but I do expect the president whom we have elected to know about and care about these issues. The government cannot solve every problem, but when a bailout bill for Wall Street crooks was decided in a shorter amount of time than it took the government to respond to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, then it is clearly time for a change.

Neither political party stands completely on the moral high ground. So-called moral conservatives should look inside themselves and determine how and why they define morality in a certain way – and whether or not that definition is too narrow. The issues traditionally defined as “moral” are important. However, instead of just limiting morality to two issues, we need to expand the scope of that definition as many young, black evangelicals have to include helping the poor, education reform, and so on.

It’s the moral thing to do.

Alissa Griffith is a former columnist for The Post and a senior at Ohio University.