Presidents, religion, and American Moral Values

Faith in the Public Square
Lompoc Record
April 30, 2006

Until recently, it was just assumed that U.S. presidents would be good Protestant Christians. Even the exceptions to this rule - Lincoln being the most obvious - were still perceived to be Protestant Christians. It wasn't until John Kennedy became the nation's first Roman Catholic president that this assumption was truly challenged, and he had de-emphasize his Catholicism to quiet Protestant angst about his possible subservience to the Pope.

Religion remains intertwined with presidential politics, but today the question isn't affiliation, but one's stance on moral values. According to the pollsters, in 2004 voters concerned about moral values chose the conservative Methodist George Bush over the liberal Roman Catholic John Kerry by a considerable margin. Republicans were deemed the “moral values” party, while Democrats became the favored choice of nonreligious folk.

The problem with these polls is the way they define a “moral value.” It's possible that moral values aren't limited to abortion and opposition to gay marriage. If the environment, poverty, opposition to the death penalty, opposition to the Iraq war, and protection of civil rights are moral values, then perhaps things might look differently.

President Bush has been upfront about his faith, even suggesting that Jesus was his favorite philosopher, but he's not the first president to emphasize faith and values. Three decades ago, Jimmy Carter was the celebrated Christian candidate. I remember well that election, because it was my first. Most of my conservative evangelical friends voted for Carter because they were convinced that as a “devout” Christian he would govern from a moral and religious center. Four years later, many of these same voters swept him out of office. In part this was because Carter's moral vision differed from that of some of his former supporters.

Presidents Carter and Bush offer competing visions of how faith and politics interrelate. Carter's recent book, “Our Endangered Values,” offers a vision similar to that found in Jim Wallis' “God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.” Both books speak of a moral crisis brewing in America, but they focus on different issues than the ones that have dominated recent debates. Instead of focusing on abortion and homosexuality, Carter focuses on issues such as war and diplomacy, the environment, poverty, women's rights, and civil rights. Both books offer a “liberal” political perspective, but one rooted in a distinctly evangelical faith commitment.

Carter's moral vision for America challenges a religious and political fundamentalism that he believes is the root cause of the growing polarization of American society. He laments the inability of America's politicians to work across party lines for the good of the nation, but his moral vision is definitely a “Democratic vision.” His vision of God's realm stands in marked contrast to the one offered by the Religious Right, but it's couched in a distinctly evangelical piety. His is not a secularist vision -- while he affirms the separation of church and state, he claims a spot for faith in the public square. He's pro-life, but ambivalent about how to respond from a state perspective. He supports expanding gay rights, affirmative action, and challenges the subservience of women to men. His strong opposition to the death penalty is, at least to me, refreshing at a time when the politically expedient thing is to support it. Though he's not a pacifist, he challenges the current administration's foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq, and he calls on the administration to place greater attention to diplomacy rather than to military solutions.

Jim Wallis is noted for saying that God is neither Republican nor Democrat. One could add that God is also not an American citizen. Jimmy Carter has placed a competing moral vision into the public square. Now it's time to carefully and civilly consider which of these competing visions best reflects our own faith perspective. As a Christian, I must ask: What would Jesus do and think? Would he back Carter's vision or Bush's? Each of us, looking to our own religious traditions, must ask that same question. As we begin to have this conversation, with religious and non-religious alike, perhaps we will learn something that will make this a better and safer world to live in.

Dr. Bob Cornwall is pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Lompoc.