THE RELIGIOUS DIVIDE
In his keynote address last month at the Call to Renewal's conference on ?'Building a Covenant for a New America,' Sen. Barack Obama told fellow Democrats they could no longer ignore the connection between religion and politics. Following is an excerpt from his speech:
During the 2004 U.S. Senate general election I ran against a gentleman named Alan Keyes. Mr. Keyes is well-versed in the Jerry Falwell-Pat Robertson style of rhetoric that often labels progressives as both immoral and godless. Indeed, Mr. Keyes announced toward the end of the campaign that "Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama. Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved." I was urged by some of my supporters not to take this statement seriously, to essentially ignore it. To them, Mr. Keyes was an extremist, and his arguments not worth entertaining. What they didn't understand, however, was that I had to take Mr. Keyes seriously, for he claimed to speak for my religion, and my God.
I answered with what has come to be the typically liberal response in such debates?- namely, I said that we live in a pluralistic society, that I can't impose my own religious views on another, that I was running to be the U.S. senator of Illinois and not the minister of Illinois. But Mr. Keyes' implicit accusation that I was not a true Christian nagged at me, and I was also aware that my answer did not adequately address the role my faith has in guiding my own values and beliefs.
A national dilemma
My dilemma was by no means unique. In a way, it reflected the broader debate we've been having in this country for the last 30 years over the role of religion in politics. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.
Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church. Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that?-regardless of our personal beliefs?-constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, there are some liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith. Now, such strategies of avoidance may work for progressives when our opponent is Alan Keyes. But over the long haul, I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives.
Finding a faith
We first need to understand that Americans are a religious people. Ninety percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than in evolution.
It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma. I was working with churches, and the Christians who I worked with recognized themselves in me. They saw that I knew their book and that I shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me remained removed, detached, that I was an observer in their midst. And in time, I came to realize that something was missing. And if it weren't for the particular attributes of the historically black church, I may have accepted this fate. Because of its past, the black church understands in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. And in its historical struggles for freedom and the rights of man, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany.
Reaching for glory
That's a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans?-evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives. It is not something they set apart from the rest of their beliefs and values. In fact, it is often what drives their beliefs and their values. And that is why as progressives, we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse. Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations toward one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome?- others will fill the vacuum. In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and Alan Keyeses will continue to hold sway.
I told ya, yer raising a little Republican there. Maybe you could ask her if Obama would swing her vote, and let her compose a country song for him if she likes him.
