The Reagan and Bush era is called in Balmer's book, God in the White House
The faith card.
Now: a sensitive topic for me, but one I'd like to learn from in conversation. How genuine do you think the faith card is for our political candidates? Avoid words like hypocrisy, jerk, disingenuous ... and instead stick to some facts, appointments, decisions, etc.. What do you think? Do you think the entrance of religious rhetoric into the campaign, especially since Carter, has been good or bad?
Jimmy Carter announced he was a born-again Christian and, though I think he was then more born-again than he is now, his Christian commitments have always been to the front of his statements. He is now a moderate-to-liberal Southern Baptist. As we write this there are plans for the New Baptist Covenant surrounding Carter.
But what about Reagan and GHW Bush? Here are some of Balmer's conclusions:
Reagan experienced a born-again conversion as a child at a Disciples of Christ church; went to a Disciples college (Eureka). These are credible faith elements of his journey to the Presidency. Reagan attracted the conservative evangelical vote in spite of his divorce and re-marriage (which today seems trivial compared to what Balmer had been the status quo -- which in my own experience is about the time the evangelical movement became more tolerant of divorce and remarriage) and in spite of the fact that he and Nancy rarely attended church and in spite of the fact that Nancy consulted an astrologer.
Balmer is keen also to show that the Reagan's own decisions, in spite of appointing some clear evangelicals (Koop, Watts), did not follow through on the expectations of the Religious Right. Balmer has some telling quotes from Paul Weyrich to this effect.
GHW Bush is known for having switched from campaigning against Reagan, where he differed both on abortion and on Reagan's "voodoo politics," to becoming his right-hand man as VP. Part of this switch involved Bush being more vocal about his faith. Bush surrounded himself with conservative evangelicals.
Balmer concludes this chp with a reflection on the need for a common enemy for a movement to gain strength -- when the Iron Curtain collapsed there was the need to find a new enemy. Enter Clinton and Bush.
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#16,
What in the world is a "faith consultant"? I propose this: the person is a political consultant and strategist. Someone who can spin the "faith" language and image the right way for whoever is contracting him/her.
It's making up for lost time in my opinion. It is also a less than noble try to play the "faith card." But as the game goes, it has to be in any politicians play book especially when running for state and national office.
So where do our Islamic voters fall? Aren't they part of the "faith" vote? Or is "faith" a euphemism for "evangelical Christian"?
Bill,
straddling here..
just to clarify a bit what i said/and muddle it up a bit at the same time (plausible deniability? or just role confusion?)
the CT article i cited was in deed talking about 'faith political consultants'... This is of course Old News in the Republican Party... and probably several years older phenomena w the Dems than CT makes out in its article...
In Fairness -- my friend Mara, cited in the article is in my opionion, a very sincere person of faith, who also knows the world of politics...
My many questions about how faith does and should play out in the political realm are too messy and too extensive to summarize...
If it matters -- i am trying to straddle a line between believing the best possible about all the players -- and proper cynicism based on long experience...
between still having my own favorites (Obama this year, Dems and minor parties in a messy mix most years)-- and not expecting any of them to actually do more than the precedents on all sides indicate is actually doable...
in other words whoever is in the white house does matter -- but its never to be confused with the kingdom of God...
sorry if this is off point...
blessings
Isn't Jim Wallis of Sojourners a faith consultant?
I think that the "faith card" has been unkind to Mitt Romney. A significant part of faith is religious identity -- which tends to define's itself by "others" or a common perceived enemy.
Many 'born again' Christians are used to thinking of thir own faith as "true" and all the others as "false" ... including Mormans and Jehova's Witnesses.
It has stretched 'born again' Christians to find themselves making common cause on conservative moral issues with Catholics, Mormans and Conservative Jews... despite the fact that Romney has all the Conservative issues right ... he cannot exactly find common ground with the 'born agains' ... hence, his political difficulties.
I find it interesting that one of the urban legend type attacks against Obama has been precisely on the point of religion. I am speaking of the false email going around implying that he is an under-cover Muslim.
somehow faith needs to be moved from exclusive identity politics (us vs. them) to the level of inclusive moral guide (us loving and serving on behalf of everyone else).
j
Josenmiami--good points...
i think that deconstructing culturally delimited use of the very biblical term 'born again' is quite necessary.
We must be born again, born anew, born from above.
And the marks of truly born again Christians are mostly the opposite of the culturally closed-doors circled wagons postures of the religious right. So we do need to challenge each other when we slip into culturally delimited usage. it only encourages the slip-slide into meaningless language.
Maybe we need to reconstruct the new testament language of maturation in Christ... that's supposed to follow with born-again experience. Like insist on some evidence of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5) and the beatitudes in praxis... whenever we hear the term born-again... ?
blessings,
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