(MintPress)—In a nation like the U.S. that prides itself on the separation between Church and State, questions about political candidates and religiosity might seem like a superfluous issue.
According to a study from the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service, “A majority (56%) of the public says it is very or somewhat important for a presidential candidate to have strong religious beliefs, regardless of whether those beliefs are the same as their own.”
And statistics seem to indicate that religion does play a role in the electability of politicians in America – especially for Republicans.
In 1980, Evangelical leader the Rev. Jerry Falwell famously spoke of his vision for America – the three-point plan included getting people converted to Christ, getting them baptized, and getting them registered to vote – which seems to certainly have paid off at the polls since then.
Consider the role that Evangelical Christian voters played in electing George H.W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, with 68 percent registered Evangelicals-or 26.5 million individual Evangelicals voting – and zealously voting for Bush.
A report from the Ray C. Bliss Institute concluded, “Increased polarization is the principal finding of the Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics post-election survey … Although the election was very close overall (51 percent for Bush and 49 percent for Kerry), there was extensive polarization between and within the major religious traditions … Evangelical Protestants gave Bush more than three-quarters of their votes, while nearly three-quarters of the Unaffiliated voted for Kerry.”
And according to findings by the Pew Foundation, in the 2010 elections for the U.S. House of Representatives, white Protestants voted overwhelmingly Republican and religiously unaffiliated voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly for Democrats.
With debates amongst Republican candidates for the 2012 election heating up, faith has been touted as one of the many issues separating the candidates, but the question of how each of those candidates adheres to the tenants of their respective faith traditions in their personal and political lives hasn’t really garnered much attention.
As Bill Keller of the New York Times recently pointed out, “…when it comes to the religious beliefs of our would-be presidents, we are a little squeamish about probing too aggressively,” adding that the “There is a sense, encouraged by the candidates, that what goes on between a candidate and his or her God is a sensitive, even privileged domain, except when it is useful for mobilizing the religious base and prying open their wallets.”
Keller suggests that the primaries represent “ an important opportunity to confront our scruples about the privacy of faith in public life — and to get over them.”
Dave Welch, president of the Houston Area Pastor Council, an evangelical group that encourages church leaders to promote voting and godly citizenship told reporters in August ahead of the Iowa primary, “If a candidate is Christian, we will look closely at that, but just because they call themselves a Christian does not mean that they share our values.”
That type of reasoning is why Newt Gingrich’s sweeping win in the South Carolina primary is puzzling to some. Gingrich won with strong support from born-again/evangelical Christians and from voters who told the Pew Foundation that it is important to them that a candidate shares their religious beliefs.
“South Carolina evangelical voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly for a thrice-married admitted adulterer. Rick Santorum, the squeaky-clean social conservative purist received just 21 percent of born-again support—tying Mitt Romney, whose bland establishment demeanor (and perhaps in part his Mormon faith) caused evangelical leaders to try to find another candidate to coalesce around in the first place.”
But not everyone agrees that religion should play the role it has been in American politics.
According to a 2006 report from the Interfaith Alliance Foundation,
“More and more, religion is being used as a tool to influence policy and advance political strategy. And, increasingly, one voice is taking precedence over another. America’s shared values are being replaced by values that advance only particular sectarian interests. Religion’s powerful healing force is being severely compromised. America contains a vast diversity of people. Religion should elicit respect and facilitate understanding among all of them. Real solutions for the problems addressing our nation will come only from people who represent and appreciate diversity.”
The Washington, DC-based group published a guide for political candidates, which it suggests they take to heart, in order to understand how to run for office in a multi-faith nation, while respecting diversity and communicating in a manner that does not erode religious diversity.
The organization urges candidates: “Your challenge, as a candidate and ultimately an elected official, is to expand the values discussion to include issues such as economic justice, compassion, mercy, humility, justice, peace-making, and reconciliation”. So how are the Republican candidates measuring up to this charge? In part two of this report, MintPress will examine this question, and inform you about issues surrounding current candidates and matters of religiosity.
Source: MintPress