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For evangelical family, Bush's victory due to values, prayer

November 7, 2004

Page 2 of 2 -- On Sept. 10, 2001, Cary Leslie was earning about $55,000 a year. On Sept. 12, the decline began. No one was flying. No one was renting cars. Down went the commissions he gets when customers sign up for insurance coverage. ''Maybe $35,000," Cary Leslie said of what he earns now, and that includes income from a second job he took a year ago, delivering pizzas Friday and Saturday nights.

Forty hours a week at the car-rental counter, 12 hours a week running pizzas, the pinch of gasoline at $2 a gallon, savings drained, the realization that he and his wife are ''kind of the working poor" -- and still it was moral concerns, rather than economic ones, that guided both of them on Election Day.

''I don't blame President Bush for anything that's happened with my income," Cary Leslie said. Rather, he looks at Bush as someone who believes in ''personal responsibility," which Cary Leslie believes in as well.

''There are jobs out there," he said, and as tired as he might be Saturday night as he drives the streets of northern Ohio, he can use that time to listen to worship tapes, to think, to pray, and to remind himself of what the priorities of a good life should be.

''It's been rough, very rough. I mean scraping by," Tara Leslie said. But ''to us, the biggest things were the moral things."

Because of this, Tuesday came with what they both say was ''a sense of urgency." They voted for Bush and a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Cary Leslie went to bed toward midnight, when the outcome was not yet clear. His wife stayed up till 2:30, too nervous to sleep, mostly watching FOX News.

An hour later, the alarm went off, and while Tara Leslie slept, her husband did what he always does -- tiptoe out, get dressed down the hall, eat a bowl of Wheaties, drive to the airport, fiddle with the radio, pray.

By 7:30, when his wife awakened, Cary Leslie was dealing with a number of customers wearing John F. Kerry buttons, one of whom approached the counter singing a song about saving the world.

''We did that yesterday," Cary Leslie said to him.

''What do you mean?" the man replied.

''With the vote," Cary Leslie said.

Hours later, he arrived home smiling, just as Kerry was conceding defeat in Boston, and an hour later, when Bush was declaring victory, the Leslies were in the thick of a day that would be the same no matter who won the election. A crying child with a bump on her head who needs a prayer. A neighbor who wants to borrow the minivan. A diaper that needs changing.

A typical day, except with a particular hum to it that was not there the day before. The day before, the Leslies were the margins. Now they are the majority.

''To know that he prays," Tara Leslie said of Bush, ''and I really believe he does, that's a huge thing."

The sanctity of marriage will be fine. The Supreme Court will be fine. The war on terror will be fine. The economy will be fine.

''It's not like a major euphoric outbreak," her husband said. ''It's more like satisfaction."

''Validation," she said.

''I'm just kind of hopeful," he said. ''Definitely," she said.

A celebration, then, for two Bush votes as the next four years begin.

''Dear Lord," they say, one more time.