After a tense night in a highly competitive contest John Kerry has conceded the State of Ohio and the election to George Bush. Congratulations Mr. President.

Several of our member blogs have commented on the election results and are worth visiting. I’ve pointed to a few posts below but if you have a great entry that isn't listed let me know. I'll update this summary occasionally throughout the day.

Dawn Treader

My conviction that worldviews really matter was confirmed. From worldviews come ideas, from ideas come policies and positions. To change a person’s position, you need to change their assumptions about reality and truth. Changing presuppositions can happen, but in my experience, it takes more than words to do it. It takes a relationship as well. It is a matter of changing both the heart and mind. Words alone will not do it.

It was embryo destruction, not the economy. It was partial-birth abortion, not terrorism. It was same-sex marriage, and not the war in Iraq. If you want to see what killed the Democrats chances of regaining the White House just look at the issues we’ve been discussing on this blog for the past year. Exit polls show that in many states, “moral values” was a bigger issue than either the economy or terrorism. One in five voters throughout the Midwest was an evangelical. In Ohio, the state that will put the President over the top, that number was 25%, with Bush taking 75% of the evangelical vote.

The Republicans extend control of the House and gain two in the Senate, maybe more. Daschle is out and the politics of obstructionism may finally die a long deserved death.

My greatest hope is that now the Senate Majority leader figures out a way to defeat the obstructionism in the bringing up for vote judgeships. George W. Bush can now come out more aggressive in his remaining four years. We have work to do …

Bush Takes It: Kudos to Mr. Kerry for his statesmanlike willingness to concede, rather than litigate this election. While I didn’t agree with all of his tactics, I will admit that Mr. Kerry fought his way through the election admirably.

Many voters cited moral values as the most important issue in this election, over Iraq, terrorism, and the economy. From everything I have read so far, this surprised the pollsters, who had not expected this issue to be very important to most voters. What accounts for this last minute importance of this issue in many voters minds after not even being mentioned before the election? Let's just say that I certainly believe the prayers are answered.

On the not-so-bright side, the stem cell research proposition passed. As I pointed out before, I think this is a bad idea -- largely for ethical reasons, but also for economic reasons.

Now, however, is not the time for evangelical Christians to rest on their laurels and assume that everything is okay for another four years. Everything is most assuredly not okay, nor will it be while we sit on the sidelines and let the GOP benefit from our numbers at the polls without holding their feet to the fire on the issues that move us. The issues are many, and I won’t bother to try and prioritize them right now:

Sanctity of life - We can be thankful, I think, that we have a strong advocate for this position in President Bush. Overturning Roe v. Wade is essential, as is holding the line on federally funded embryonic stem-cell research and cloning [etc.]