THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 39, March 4, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RELIGION & THE 2012 ELECTIONS
By Alan Caruba
RELIGION AS A CENTRAL COMPONENT OF THE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC: A BELIEF HELD IN COMMON BY NEARLY ALL U.S. PRESIDENTS, FROM
GEORGE WASHINGTON, THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, TO PRESIDENTS IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA -- QUESTIONS THAT NEED
SERIOUS CONSIDERATION, IN VIEW OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION COMING IN NOVEMBER, 2012: THE SINCERITY OF INCUMBENT PRESIDENT &
DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR REELECTION BARACK HUSEIN OBAMA'S PROFESSION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH -- OBAMA'S COMMITMENT TO
SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE MANDATED IN THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
FULL STORY:
The one thing that U.S. Presidents from Washington through to modern times have held in common was the belief that religion was a central component of the
life of the American Republic.
Calvin Coolidge, President from 1923 to 1929, said:
“Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive
our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberality, and for the
rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they
cannot believe in our government. There are only two main theories of
government in our world. One rests on righteousness and the other on
force. One appeals to reason, and the other appeals to the sword. One is
exemplified in the republic; the other is represented by despotism.”
Ronald Reagan echoed this view saying: “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”
For Barack Obama, Sundays have often been devoted to playing golf. A self-declared Christian, there are widespread concerns that he was and is a Muslim, given
his childhood as the adopted son of an Indonesian Muslim, his mother’s second husband. In the 2008 presidential election campaign, he managed to overcome
the fact that his spiritual mentor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, led a Chicago church with a doctrine of Black Liberation theology that was frequently highly critical
of America.
When John F. Kennedy ran for office, the question was whether his being Catholic would play a role in whether he could be elected. He put that question to rest.
Obama had to sever his ties with Reverend Wright in order to seek and win election.
As Mitt Romney closes in on the Republican nomination, some Liberals are already sniping at his Mormon faith. Rick Santorum’s emphasis on the strictures of
his faith has played an unknown factor in his fluctuating fortunes.
The Gallup organization began systematically tracking religion in 1948, asking Americans to name the major religion with which they personally identified. Back
then, two percent (2%) of Americans volunteered “no religion” and another three percent (3%) had an otherwise unidentified religious identity. By the 1970s, the
number of Americans with no formal religious identity began to increase, reaching eleven percent (11%) by 1990.
By 2010, sixteen percent (16%) said they had no religious identity or had an otherwise undesignated response. A Gallup analysis noted:
“Lack of identification with a formal religious group does not necessarily
mean religion is irrelevant in a broad sense in a person’s life. One can
remain quite religious, or at least spiritual, while, at the same time,
eschewing attachment to or identity with a formal religion or
denomination.”
The Gallup polling demonstrates that eighty-four percent (84%) of Americans, a huge majority, do identify themselves as affiliated in some fashion, formal or not,
with a faith of choice.
Drawing on two surveys, the General Social Survey and the National Congressional Study, Mark Chavez, a Professor of Sociology, Religion, and Divinity at Duke
University, author of American Religion: Contemporary Trends, concluded that traditional belief and practice is relatively stable, but that confidence in
religious institutions has declined more than confidence in secular ones.
In a March 3, 2012 Wall Street Journal commentary, Peggy Noonan wrote:
“The other day in a seminar at a university, a student of Political Science
asked a sort of complicated question that seemed to be about the
predictability of human response to a given set of political stimuli. I
answered that if you view people as souls, believe that we have souls
within us, that they are us, then nothing political is fully predictable,
because you never know what a soul will do, how a soul will respond,
what truth it will apprehend and react to.”
The current firestorm over the Obamacare mandate that contravenes personal conscience, a pillar of all religions, has ignited a debate over the separation of
Church and State. The U.S. Constitution specifically forbids “the establishment” of a state religion and, by extenstion, forbids the U.S. central government from
coming between an individual’s spiritual beliefs and the government's demands.
Coolidge also said:
“We do not need more intellectual power; we need more moral power.
We do not need more knowledge; we need more character. We do not
need more government; we need more culture. We do not need more
law; we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are
seen; we need more of the things that are unseen.”
Religion is hardwired into humans. From the Stone Age onward, we have created religions as a means to cope with an often dangerous and indifferent world, and
to peer into what Shakespeare called “The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Consciously or not, three years into President Obama’s
term, millions of Americans are reexamining their religious beliefs and I suspect this will play an important role in the outcome of the 2012 elections.
Americans may have grown more secular in their general outlook, but there is still that inner voice, their relationship with the faith into which they were born or
they embraced — their soul — and the historic distrust of big government that will shape the outcome of the election.
The Founding Fathers believed that only men of “virtue” could lead America and only citizens who practiced virtue in their lives could preserve and protect the
Republic. They were right.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Religion, Secularism, & America
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
U.S. Constitutional Law & Political Philosophy
The Constitution of the United States of America
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity