According to a recent Gallup Poll, 81% of Americans believe in God. The bestplaces website reports that 59.9% of our neighbors in Forest Park identify as “religious.”
Although the numbers in both categories have been declining, people of faith remain a sizeable cohort in the electorate, and it seems appropriate, therefore, to ask how God should be experienced as a political influencer in the presidential election coming up in just 41 days.
To begin, let me clarify where I’m coming from.
I want to distinguish between God and religion. I will define God along with Paul Tillich as a person’s ultimate concern and religion as a medium, an agency or means of doing something.
For example, I have a Thai friend whose fiancé lived in Thailand until they were married a year ago. Because he couldn’t be with her in person for months at a time, he had to rely on media like phones and the internet to stay in touch. In this column, I’m talking about people’s ultimate concerns and not the media like religion, scripture or prayer that we use to connect with them, although it’s difficult to separate the two.
Another point: The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with the practice of religion. It does not prohibit religion from trying to influence government.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”
Finally, following are the three top religions in terms of percentage of the U.S. population: Christian 68%, Jewish 2%, Muslim 1%, all of which claim Abraham as their father and first prophet.
All three are monotheistic, and share a belief in human dignity, freedom of conscience, and social justice, and reject immoral behavior such as theft, murder, adultery, fraud, and lying.
If you examine the above carefully, you will realize that what our American culture accepts as self-evident ethical principles all come from the three Abrahamic traditions, which all claim divine inspiration for their shared vision of the “destination” of our collective and individual journeys.
Not only do the three share a common destination — an ethical vision or goal, which our Jewish friends refer to as tikun olam, i.e., repairing or mending a broken world — but they also view a relationship with God as the way to get to the destination and the fuel to empower the long, long journey.
One way God acts as a political influencer is to demand repentance, i.e., turning around and heading in the right direction again.
During the last lap of the race to the White House, our Jewish friends will be coincidentally keeping the High Holy Days — Rosh Hashanah, Oct. 2-4 and Yom Kippur Oct. 11-12, which according to a website sponsored by Zichron Menachem is “a time to thank G-d for a successful year, reflect and repent of the past year’s misdeeds, and crown G-d as the one and only King of the world.”
Similarly, last spring Muslims kept Ramadan and Christians kept Lent, both of which are seasons of introspection, confession, and getting “back on track.”
It would be a blessing if, during the campaign, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris would interrupt their blaming and promising with a word from our Sponsor saying something like, “Fellow Americans, today instead of blaming the other side, I admit that I and my side have screwed up several times in the recent past and, what’s more, what I am proposing won’t change earth into heaven, not in the first days of my administration, not ever.
“If I’m elected, I’m going to work for all of you, not fight for you, because the word fight implies that the other side is an enemy. Together let’s turn around and return to our shared belief in human dignity, freedom of conscience and social justice.”
Easier, of course, said than done, but that’s what God’s role in politics looks like. God’s role is to provide an ethical and spiritual GPS and enough fuel for a long journey. It has more to do with direction than speed.
What liberals get right according to my understanding of the Abrahamic tradition is the first two-thirds of Micah 6:8, i.e., “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness …”
What religious conservatives get right is the last third of that verse, i.e., “What does the Lord require of you but to … walk humbly with your God.”
It’s not either a personal relationship with the Creator or doing justice. It’s not either rights or obligations. It’s not either mind or heart. It’s not either science or scripture. And on and on and on. It’s both. It’s all of the above.
Seventy years ago, Japan was our enemy. Now that nation is a close ally. That’s a metaphor for at least part of what God’s role should be in national, village, condo association and family political decision making — to provide the vision and the will to create unum out of pluribus.