Religion and Politics
Religion & Politics
Updated Dec. 21, 2007:
The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, yet a powerful inclination to mix religion and politics. Throughout our nation's history, great political and social movements – from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights to today's struggles over abortion and gay marriage – have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership and organizational muscle. In recent years, religion has been woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before.
The 2004 election was the latest presidential campaign in which candidates openly discussed their religious beliefs, churches became increasingly active in political mobilization and voters could be sorted not just by their policy preferences but also by the depth of their religious commitment. In fact, whether a person regularly attends religious services was a more powerful predictor of his or her vote for president than such standard demographic characteristics as gender, age, income and region.
According to an August 2007 poll by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the vast majority (69%) of Americans agree that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. However, a sizable majority (63%) opposes churches endorsing candidates during election campaigns. Just 28% say churches should come out in favor of candidates, but that number has grown slightly since 2002 when only 22% held this opinion.
Although the public opposes church endorsement of candidates, most Americans view President Bush's expressions of religious faith as appropriate. According to a July 2006 poll by the Pew Forum, more than half (52%) say Bush mentions his religious faith the right amount and another 14% say he talks about his faith too little. About a quarter (24%) believe that Bush mentions his faith too much, a percentage that has increased 10 points since July 2003.
http://pewforum.org/religion-politics/
Church and State, Religion and Politics
Kenneth Cauthen
The question of religion and politics is not the same as the question of church and state. Failure to make this distinction results in confusion. The problem of church and state has to do with institutions and practices. Neither must trespass the boundaries that define their legitimate sphere of influence. Here the concept of separation is valid. Thorny problems arise in two particular areas.
1. The first involves trying to steer between avoiding an establishment of religion and permitting its free exercise. Prayer in public schools and is among the most contentious.
2. A second range of problems arises when religious belief and practice conflict with secular law.
The problem of religion and politics defines another set of issues. Church and state deals with the relationship of institutions that are independent of each other. Religion and politics has to do with two spheres of activities in the life of the same persons. Citizens who belong to religious groups are also members of the secular society, and this dual association generates complications. Religious beliefs have moral and social implications, and it is appropriate for people of faith to express these through their activities as citizens in the political order. The fact that ethical convictions are rooted in religious faith does not disqualify them from the political realm. However, they do not have secular validity merely because they are thought by their exponents to be religiously authorized. They must be argued for in appropriate social and political terms in harmony with national values. In both cases, we should be prepared to deal with complexities, ambiguities, and overlapping realms in which practical discernment must find workable principles to guide us that are as compatible with fundamental Constitutional imperatives as human reason can devise.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~kenc/relandpo.htm
Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists-
The Final Letter, as Sent:
January 1, 1802
(To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.”)
Gentlemen:
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Thomas Jefferson