A Spiritual Awakening : Part 6

Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way
by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

(Page 6 of 7)

Evangelical leaders have embraced a set of political priorities that is depressingly familiar and private: making abortion illegal, promoting anti-gay discrimination, fighting comprehensive sex education in favor of abstinence-only information - which has not proven to be an effective prevention against pregnancy - eliminating the teaching of evolution in schools, and reducing taxes. A slew of evangelical organizations promote themselves as "pro-family," which essentially begins and ends with trying to legislate in the arenas of personal and private morality. This is particularly ironic since evangelicals tend to also have a strong libertarian streak as well.

Among the most prominent evangelical leaders, personal morality is basically the alpha and omega of their concerns. Are they also concerned for social justice? Overseas, American evangelicals are a key force against human trafficking, slavery, and other human rights abuses. But here at home engagement in public issues like poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination - issues that the Gospels clearly tell us Jesus cared about - are a low priority. Evangelical leaders would rather tick off a list of "thou shall nots" than work for progressive policies. Why are they fighting so hard against abortion instead of fighting to protect teenagers from the conditions that lead to unwanted pregnancy? Why are they promoting a message of hate and fear, rather than one of love and help? My faith teaches "Judge not, lest you be judged." And yet these churches seem satisfied to condemn others without offering help to solve the problem.

As a backdrop to all these sorry turns in our churches, political conservatives and liberals are engaged in an unholy - if inadvertent - alliance that has had the effect of further privatizing religion. For their own reasons, neither the left nor the right want churches to deal with public issues that revolve around economic unfairness and are reluctant to ask people of faith to call upon government to help shape a more just society. The right pretends that virtuous activity occurs only in the sphere of private behavior, not through governmental intervention. In fact they seem to think governmental intervention is appropriate only for overturning previous government decisions that they disagree with - e.g., the ban on school prayer - or in virtually anything having to do with what they consider improper sexual conduct, including homosexuality and abortion. The well-organized and politically attuned Religious Right pointedly ignores Christ's admonition that we should care for the "least among us" when it withdraws from those arenas where government has had a traditional role, such as enforcing civil rights, adjusting tax policy, and supporting social programs that can improve the daily lives of the poor.

Among leaders of the left, we find a different malady. They are obsessed with keeping religion out of the public sphere, demanding a perfect purging of faith from public life far beyond what our Founding Fathers meant by "separation of church and state." This obsession with secularism weakens their moral authority in mobilizing the national will to take on ingrained problems that stem from poverty and deprivation of civil rights. It makes the leaders of the left sound intellectual but without passion. The danger of not engaging religious teachings in the drive for social reform might be worse than condemning them. Reason and rationality alone will not usher in a new era of honesty, social justice, protection of the earth, and respect for women. It just won't happen. Like addiction to drugs or alcohol, one cannot eliminate a behavior simply by arguing that it is destructive. The successful fight against addiction requires a deep hope and faith in something greater than oneself.

For the left, making judgments about personal behavior may be uncomfortable. But it is necessary if we are to have a moral leg to stand on. It means acknowledging that conservatives are correct on some issues: that welfare reform was not the disaster that was predicted and in fact had some good results, that pornography in the age of an Internet so easily accessed by our children is more than a personal option, that promiscuity on today's college campuses is a problem for the young people who are engaging in it. And it means pushing further than the right on some issues: for instance, insisting that no one of any political or religious stripe has given sufficient attention and voice to the problems of drug abuse and underage drinking. Would it be so wrong to draw some moral lines in the liberal sand?

Neither the left nor the right seems willing to acknowledge that there is an appropriate role for religious teachings in illuminating what would be required, as expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution, to "provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." On the complicated questions of how best to care for the least among us - the poor, the immigrant, the disabled veteran - religious teachings appear to be about the last place we look for wisdom. Yet these are questions on which we desperately need such guidance.

Finding the proper relationship between religion and politics has always been among the most divisive of debates in America. And for good reason. At times, religion and politics have been mixed in a way that debases both. When explicit or implicit religious tests are used to determine whether someone is fit to hold office; when theological differences are cast into public policy; or when voters are told that one party is godly while another is not, we are belittling both faith and public life.

But on a broader scale, we must not miss the essential connection between religion and politics. Both religion and politics aspire to create a better world, and both emphasize the importance of realizing our connection to one another. In faith, we are bound to one another through our Creator, whose image we reflect. In politics, we are bound to one another through our shared faith that all "are created equal." There can be no doubt that our greatest moments have come when we were able to overcome division and work together to build a more just society.

Faith's essential contribution to our political life must be to offer an enduring vision of connection to one another. Jesus asked us to love our neighbor as ourselves and to see His face in the face of strangers. By working to improve the lives of others, we not only move closer to God, but we move our country closer toward the vision of our Founding Fathers.

Copyright © 2007 by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

About the Author

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, worked in the U.S. Department of Justice before serving two terms as Maryland's lieutenant governor. She has taught at Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania, speaks regularly on political and religious issues, and is engaged in philanthropic work. She and her husband have raised four daughters and live in Baltimore.