Religion's essential contribution to public
life
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Should religion steer clear of politics? If media commentaries about last
week's Pew Research Center poll on the subject are any indication, the
answer
from Americans is yes.
The national survey found that 52 percent of respondents believe that
churches
and other houses of worship should not express their views on day-to-day
social
and political questions. That's up from 44 percent in 2004.
The finding has delighted many secular pundits, who see it as proof that
Americans agree with their aim of shooing religious values and voices from
the
public square. Many also interpret the poll as a resounding public rejection
of
religious conservatives who seek to influence politics.
There are several problems with those readings. For starters, more than 70
percent of Americans told Pew pollsters that a president should have strong
religious beliefs, and 64 percent said they believe politicians today
express
their religious beliefs too little or the right amount. That's not exactly
the
profile of a nation ready to eject God from political life.
As for the idea that the poll marks a rejection of religious conservatives
and
their values, it is noteworthy that the increase in concern over politicized
religion did not come from secular liberals. It came from social
conservatives
and from Americans who regard America's major political parties as
insufficiently friendly to religion.
This tipping point was not reached in 2004 after Democratic Sen. John Kerry
tangled with Catholic bishops over his abortion stance. It came in 2008
after a
primary season dominated by headlines about Sen. Barack Obama's ties to such
leftist pastors as the Revs. Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger and by
breathless reports about Democratic efforts to woo religious voters.
Secular liberals surely will cry hypocrisy when they see conservatives
worrying
about politicized churches just as Democrats are angling for a bigger slice
of
the values-voter pie. Of course, conservatives can counter by noting that
many
liberals who once snickered at George W. Bush's professions of faith now
gush
about Barack Obama's.
The lesson of the poll is not that the banish-God crowd should prevail or
has
prevailed in America. Religion is an undeniable part of American public
life,
and most Americans want that to continue. We want the freedom to express our
political views, including those informed by our religious principles, and
we
generally want the same for our pastors and politicians.
With that freedom come drawbacks, of course. A politician can try to
manipulate
voters by using glib God talk to obscure a record that belies their values.
A
pastor can use his spiritual authority to try to advance his own political
clout.
Religious voices can muddy the political waters, but they also can add
transcendent perspective to our superficial debates. As America's
abolitionist
and civil rights movements attest, religious voices can awaken us to
long-simmering injustices and remind us that human rights come from God, not
government.
Religious voices also can serve as crucial a check on the state. It's no
coincidence that many of the most vocal critics of religion's influence in
America are politicians who favor expanding government power so that the
state
can play the very meaning-making role in society that they urge America's
churches to relinquish.
Even in an election year marked by a surfeit of cringe-inducing YouTube
clips
of rabidly partisan preachers and piously pandering politicians, it's worth
thinking about why our messy but invigorating tradition of religious
participation in public life beats the stifling alternative of a strictly
secular public square.
Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.