Religion in politics #1

I'm gonna break with tradition a little bit in the next couple o' posts.

I like to follow politics, and I particularly like to read the columns of a few national columnists that I find to have good insight into issues both foreign and domestic. But I rarely comment on politics in either this blog or my UM Reporter column, because I think it can obscure my real purpose in writing in each of those forums, which is to discuss issues of importance to Generation X and the church. It's not that politics isn't of importance to Christians; of course we should be concerned (and we are affected) by the political happenings of our local, state, and national communities. But our country is in such a divided state right now, with people embracing so many knee-jerk liberal or conservative positions, that commenting on any one issue is to run the risk of getting labeled.

It's difficult to resist in a season such as this one, though, when the presidential campaign is heating up and seems to be dominating the headlines everyday. I admit, I find it all really exciting! And what's more, the intersection of religion and politics has been particularly central to this campaign. Just think about so many of the story lines we've seen connected to the major presidential candidates:

-- Rudy Giuliani - Should the disconnect between his social positions and those of the Roman Catholic Church make a difference to voters? How do the GOP's conservative Christian voters view the fact that Giuliani is on his third wife? Giuliani's candidacy is fading faster than Britney Spears' celebrity, but it's unclear whether that's because of religious issues or because his terrorism-related fear mongering seems so monotone.

-- Barack Obama - Why do these bizarre rumors about Islam keep surfacing? (Gotten one over e-mail?) Is this some kind of crypto-racism designed to sow doubts in the minds of voters? For the record, Obama is a baptized Christian and a member of a UCC church in Chicago.

-- Mike Huckabee - The former Baptist preacher (and former governor of my home state of Arkansas) excites opinion among everybody in the Republican party, from those who think he is the only candidate with legitimate social conservative credentials to those who think his faith-influenced concern for the poor and the incarcerated is downright irresponsible.

-- Mitt Romney - The only Mormon candidate in either party's field faces steep skepticism by evangelical Republicans, who aren't willing to vote for a candidate they regard as a member of a growing, non-Christian faith that threatens the church. And so many of the talking heads simply misunderstand this point; in a recent column, Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post hypothetically compared objection to Romney with possible objection to a figure like Joe Lieberman, who is Jewish. Krauthammer rightly observes that the kind of veiled criticisms that Huckabee lobs at Romney would be regarded as outright bigotry if lobbed at a figure like Liberman. That may be true, but the point for evangelical voters, I am almost positive, is not the fact that Romney is not an evangelical Christian. Mormons, after all, are every bit as socially conservative as Southern Baptists. But evangelicals look at the entrepenuerial, expanding faith of the LDS Church and see it as a threat to Christian orthodoxy (in a way they do not when it comes to Judaism). It is not about Mormonism being "cultic" which is the word that keeps coming up in the national news. It is rather that evangelicals don't want a president who represents what they see as a very real threat to orthodox Christianity. And if you don't think that is a legitimate Christian concern, go read any of the early church fathers' writings against Judaizers, Gnostics, Marcionites, Arians, etc.

-- Hilary Clinton - Okay, so I've already written a post that touched on Hilary Clinton and faith, although it was really more about the public perception of Methodism. But Hilary's faith is an interesting issue, because so many people seem to want to view her as areligious. But regardless of what you think about her political views, she is a lifelong Christian (much more religious than some of the other candidates. See: Thompson, Fred). I think many evangelicals view liberal political convictions as incompatible with Christian faith (predominantly on the issue of abortion), and that has more than anything to do with Hilary's perceived religiosity (or lack thereof).

Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into a political blog. But it may take another post or two to get the political bug out of my system!