Religion, Politics and Time
Time had a cover story earlier in the month discussing the 2008 Presidential candidates and religion. In the opening, the Time magazine article suggests Democrats are comfortable talking about religion and Republicans are not. It might be more accurate to say Democrats are talking about religion and Republicans are not. The single largest reference to religion in the campaign so far is about Mitt Romney and the Mormon faith. And the next most common reference is who will get the lion’s share of the religious right vote? If Democrats are comfortable talking about religion it is more likely because they sense a political advantage discussing Romney’s Mormon faith. That strategy could backfire.
It would not have given Time magazine as much space to use for the cover story but simply stating that by virtue of the survey numbers all or most candidates and the American public in general are lacking when it comes to the question of faith. If one’s connection to faith is being measured in percentages and nothing rises above or much above 50%, religion is not getting a fair shake.
If one takes a conservative point of view, the best quote from the article is this. ‘ In spite of all that, according to the new TIME poll, only 15% of registered voters believe that Hillary Clinton is “strongly religious,” compared to 22% for John Edwards and 24% for Barack Obama. ‘ And even better yet is, ‘ On this point, Clinton undoubtedly suffers from the double whammy of being a Democrat and a Clinton. Even Democrats tended to chalk up her husband’s religious fluency to his general political skill, the ability to be everything to everyone…’
Somewhat of a surprise was data from 2004 about religion and President Bush. ‘ In May 2004, half (49%) of American voters said President Bush’s faith made him a strong leader while only 36% said it made him too closed-minded. ‘
Drawing any conclusions about candidates and religion is easily an act of futility. No matter what answers you come up with there will likely be no shared sentiment on the topic from voters overall. It may highlight the truth about religion and politics as the two best subjects for raising arguments.
A little Senate trivia on religion of the members may be enlightening or more or less what one might expect in terms of variation of religious choices among any group of Americans. According to Wikipedia, the Senate is composed of 25 Roman Catholics, 13 of Jewish or Orthodox Judaism, 13 Presbyterians, 10 Methodist, 10 Episcopalian, 7 Baptist, 5 Latter Day Saint and 15 other members from denominations shared by three or less members.
Like most things on this planet the way in which people select or hold their spiritual requirements is a mixed bag. And probably too much is made about those choices in public and private discussions. It is often referred to as an American freedom and a personal choice that would benefit from remaining that way and not allowing ourselves to pass judgment on others as easily as we do. After all, are we really entitled to pass judgment on the religious choices of others?
Stanford Matthews
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