Religion and American Politics: A Historic Perspective

Carrie Nation - Prohibitionist

INTRODUCTION

The recent acrimonious debate over the debt ceiling and possible U.S. government default is way out of proportion to the issue involved.  This is common in American history.  Examples include a small tax on tea and whether the U.S. should have silver coins.  What is often at stake is something much more fundamental.

RELIGION IN AMERICA

There is an interesting dynamic in the history of Protestantism in America.  As different Protestant churches became the “established” or mainstream churches, Americans have turned away to form and join more evangelical or Pentecostal churches and sects.  The large and sudden popularity of Baptists and Methodists in the first half of the 19^th century was partly a reaction to the less fervent Puritan (Congregational) and Episcopal churches.  As Methodist and some Baptists groups became less evangelical and more “mainstream,” there were numerous breakaways to found evangelical, enthusiastic and Pentecostal churches.  America also has a long history of itinerant preachers and camp meetings. Enthusiastic preaching, as opposed to fixed liturgies and short sermons, can now reach national and international audiences through mass media.

Competition in the religious marketplace, the lack of one dominant religious group or “established” (state supported) church, is one reason for the enduring important role that religion plays in American life.  America is the exception to the general tendency that as Christian countries experience rising income, religious participation and influence declines. It is only recently, as many evangelical groups ally themselves with far-right political positions and politicians, that religious participation may be declining.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

Religion, and religious-based morality, has played an important role in American politics.  Bernard Bailyn, in his classic Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, documents the increasingly radical anti-British sermons of Puritan ministers.  Revivals, “Great Awakenings,” and evangelical Protestantism have been part of the American landscape as far back as the wildly popular colonial preaching of the itinerant George Whitefield.  The “Great Awakening” revivalist crusades of Charles Grandison Finney in the 1820s and 1830s along the Erie Canal, whose book on how to organize a religious crusade influenced Billy Graham, led to the belief that the second part of being “reborn” was to fight to reform society. He supported many of the reform movements of the 19th century. Many believed a reformed Christian society would hasten the Second Coming. 

Finney’s followers and Protestant ministers became key figures in many of the reform movements of the 19^th Century, including suffrage (women’s right to vote), abolitionism (abolishing slavery), temperance (volunteer not drinking of alcohol), and a whole host of religious-based groups to fight immorality and reform society.  More recently, one thinks of the Civil Rights Movement led by black ministers. 

But religion can also be used to justify racism, prejudice, and reactionary political movements.  Defenders of slavery, including Southern ministers, often quoted the Bible to justify slavery.  Reformers in the 19^th Century were not above blaming much of the “immorality” of the times on Catholic immigrants, especially the Irish.  The same religious-influenced populist movement has been used against the teaching of evolution in public schools.

By historic standards, the United States has been a radical society.  All areas of life are always changing, including movement, social mobility and immigration.  In an earlier post, I summarized this dynamism as “permanent revolution.”  It is not surprising then that at any given time, many people feel threatened or morally repulsed by  some aspects of social and cultural change. Times of heightened social or cultural change, such as the forces unleashed in the 1920s or 1960s, and recently, seem to lead to a political backlash to slow down or criminalize new types of behavior. There is often a moral or religious basis to this backlash. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if religion’s influence is progressive or reactionary.

Social change has political consequences.  Civil rights for blacks led to the political issue of affirmative action.  The changing role of women in American society led to political issues like birth control and abortion.  Legal tolerance of homosexuality led to the political issue of gay marriage. 

Religious-based moral reform groups are single issue groups that are outside the political structure but attempt to influence public policy and law.  They are willing to use the coercive powers of the state to impose their moral and religious beliefs. They become political pressure groups. 

Like today, reform movements first had success at the local and state levels before their reforms were adopted at the national level.

In the 19^th Century, there was a widespread belief that Christian-based social reform would hasten the Second Coming.  Some conservatives today believe that American society has become so evil that it will lead to the Second Coming.   Michele Bachmann all but called President Obama the Anti-Christ and predicted his policies were leading to the “end of days.”  Again though, this type of rhetoric is not new.  Later Puritan ministers like Cotton Mather were constantly berating New Englanders for the “declension” (decline) of Puritan orthodoxy and looking for signs of the Second Coming.  He supported the Salem Witch Trials as a tool to stop the spread of the devil’s influence, and only changed his mind after dozens of witches (and one Puritan minister) were burned at the stake. (In a typical New England coincidence, the interrogator at the Salem Witch Trials was the grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne.)  Many people in America see moral decline as the most important issue in American politics.

With the increased influence of fundamentalism in American religion and culture, maybe the idea of Armageddon has become a mental reality for a lot more Americans.  There seems to be a lot of Armageddon movies in the last few years.  Just as Martin Luther called Rome "the whore of Babylon," many Americans seem to think the same way about Washington.  They see a president who supports laws and programs that they believe are evil.  Not wrong, but evil.  There can be no compromise with evil.  Arguments about reasonableness, fairness, rule of law, democratic process, fall on closed ears and minds.  Opponents are demonized.

Americans have had a strong tendency to see social problems as moral issues.  Social issues usually have a strong component of religion-based morality.  Drugs is a current example.  Punishment for illegal behavior, not reduction of usage or social costs, is the preferred policy.  Until recently, only libertarians and most economists, two notoriously materialistic and overlapping groups, disagreed. While some marijuana use is now legal, America has been racked by waves of illegal drugs use over the last six decades.

Over the last 60 years, we have become a much more tolerant society.  This has angered a lot of people, especially older white, native-born Americans, the predominant constituency of the social conservative and the tea party movements. It has also contributed to politicizing organized religion.

Great preachers in the past - Whitefield, Finney, Moody, Sunday, Billy Graham - were institution outsiders. They were not members of a particular Protestant denomination. If they founded a physical church, it was independent. They understood how to use the mass media of the day. Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the "Foursquare" megachurch in 1923 after a long career as an itinerant preacher in America and Asia, had her own radio license and had applied for a TV license just before she died.

They did not identify or support any organized political group or party. They did not endorse political candidates.  But for the last 40 years, the Republican Party has made conservative Christians and their organizations an important part of their political base. Republican elected officials and candidates appear at religious conferences. Religious leaders and denominations take political positions aligned with the right wing of the Republican party.

What will happen after Trump? The cooperation between some organized religious groups and religious leaders and the Republican party will probably continue. Another possibility is that the Republican Party might evolve into an American version of the Christian Democratic parties of Europe. 

INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

There are international implications to the political role of evangelical Protestantism.  A large and rising minority of people in countries like Brazil, Guatemala and South Korea have become Protestants.  Pentecostal groups have been particularly successful in Brazil and Guatemala, and among Latino immigrants to America.  There are almost as many Protestants in Africa south of the Sahara as in the United States.  The number of Protestants is also rising among the ethnic Chinese throughout East Asia, including China.  In the future, there may be a religious overlay to the interaction of internal politics and American foreign policy in Asia and in Africa. Jair Bolsonaro, the right wing former president of Brazil, made Protestant evangelical groups an important part of his political base. Evangelical religion is also an important influence in Korean politics.  

CONCLUSION

Political observers who assume that American politics is about rationality, economic interests and compromise have underestimated the role of religious-based moral beliefs in politics.  Economic analysts, with their libertarian bias and cost/benefit rationality, are tone deaf to the moral aspects of political conflicts. Voters will ignore their economic interests if they strongly believe that government is supporting or protecting immoral behavior.

In American history, religious-based moral movements have strong staying power.  They are sustained by deeply-held religious beliefs that determine political reactions to continuous economic and social change.  The current ones are not going away.