Faith and Politics
Nowadays, more so than ever before, religion plays a significant role in American presidential elections. As citizens, our job is to examine that role and decide how it will affect our vote. The Bush/Gore campaign has been very much influenced by religion. Joseph Lieberman, Gore’s running mate and the first Orthodox Jew to run for vice president on a major party ticket, has been extremely vocal about his faith. Both George W. Bush and Al Gore, a Methodist and Baptist, respectively, have also referred to their religious beliefs during this presidential campaign ("Anti-Defamation League Criticizes"), raising several questions about the part religious faith plays in presidential elections.
First, what role does religion play in the campaigning process? A new poll reveals that while seven in 10 Americans prefer a president with a sound religious beliefs, they say they don’t want to hear candidates vocalize their faith (Lester). This majority belief doesn’t seem to effect the opinions expressed by the current presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls, especially by Lieberman. At a speech at the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, Lieberman expressed his desire to find "a place for faith in America’s public life.
The current Connecticut senator went on to say "As a people, we need to reaffirm our faith and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God and God’s purposes" ("Anti-Defamation League Criticizes").
The Anti-Defamation League, who already criticized both Gore and Bush in the
spring, issued a warning to Lieberman after his comments in the Detroit church. Gore, who called himself a born-again Christian; and Bush, who referred to Jesus as his favorite philosopher, have both shi...
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...ress. 20 September 2000. 5 October 2000. . Offers findings from a poll that show Americans don’t want politicians to talk about their faith.
Lopatto, Paul. Religion and the Presidential Election: American Political Parties and
Elections. New York: Praeger, 1985. Offers extensive statistics about religion and political choices, focusing on who people of different religions specifically voted for.
Pellegrini, Frank. "Politics and Religion still and Uneasy Mix. Time. 29 August 2000.
Explains how politics and religion don’t mix well in the 2000 election, and expands on Lieberman’s warning from the Anti-Defamation League.
Simon, Paul. "Vote Not for the Best Faith, but Faith in the Best." Chicago Sun-Times
15 August 2000. 12 September 2000. A brief persuasive essay encouraging people to vote for the best man for the job, regardless of his faith.
in every choice we make and our outcomes depend on our choices. Not too long ago, our preacher
The essay that I will be summarizing is called Faith, Truth, and Tolerance In America. The author of this essay is Edward Moore Ted Kennedy. The thesis of this essay is Kennedy’s beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America.
"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say: " you helped this happen. This could be if we all fast and pray this could be god's call to revival"
Religion has ingrained itself into mainstream American politics. The current Reform Party and many portions of the Republican party platforms evidence this.
Obama uses religious references multiple times in his speech, referring to Scripture as source of deliberation. He said, the scripter tells us: ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city
Towards the middle of the nineteenth century a “Catholic” candidate, Paul Blanshard, ran for presidency. Blanshard was a burden to the Republicans due to his religion. The view of Catholicism was an institutional and political problem. Even if the candidate was not Catholic, he was married by a Catholic priest and apparently that was a connected him to Catholic problems. A political problem because Catholicism was a world power that of Pr...
Lopatto, Paul. A. Religion and the Presidential Election. Edited by Gerald M. Pomper. New York: Praeger, 2014. Spiritual Answers Online, Church and State, Web. 15 May 2015
The message of political alignment is a vast and varying concept, one that will be debated for as a long as party divisions exist. This divide however exists in not just the Christian community. We begin with the metaphor of a shepherds flock, blindly following what an individual says over ones own thinking. Boyd furthers this concept of alignment and how “many who left sincerely believe there is little ambiguity in how true Christian faith translates into politics. Since God is against abortion, Christians should vote for the pro-life candidate, they believe- and the preacher should say so” (Boyd 2). This blind adherence to one topic, one issue is unfortunately a failure on an intellectual level of all people, whether Christian or not. The
A report by Pew Research last year showed, “The majority of Americans would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who doesn 't believe in God. Unsurprisingly, this is higher among Republicans – 70 per cent of whom would be less likely to vote for an atheist, in comparison with 42 per cent of Democrats” (Christian today). These statistics show that faith really does matter when voting for the next president. All of the individuals running in this year’s presidential election either identify with the Protestant or Catholic faith. These different faiths effect the presidential candidates’ views on abortion, taxes, gay marriage, etc. As the Christian Church and presidential election relate it is important to remember your standards and views, when considering who to vote for. The current presidential election will test the strength that the Christian Church still has in America. “America 's faith and culture leaders agree that what makes 2016 possibly the most important election in American history is not the severities of its socioeconomic problems, but rather the depth of spiritual decay into which the American people have fallen (Christian
“Separation of Church and State Protects Both Secular and Religious Worlds.” Phi Delta Kappan Feb. 2000: 462.
Christianity’s role in America has rapidly changed over the last decades. Although it is still the most popular religion in the country its power over the people has decreased significantly. However, there are still many misconceptions towards American Christianity and in order to understand the unique nature of this religiously diverse country; one must understand its history and its citizens own views on the matter.
It implies, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
Moses, Paul. “Is religion about war -- or peace.” CNN. December 18, 2009. Web 14 April 2011.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...