	Bob Hostetler > Writing

Using My Religion

by Bob Hostetler

In the wake of President Bush’s re-election last month, many reporters and pundits have suggested that the Democrats need to “get religion.” Whether or not you believe that “moral issues” pushed Bush over the top in the election, you cannot escape the blunt reality that the president won a landslide among church-attending voters. Had Senator Kerry done better among both Protestants and Catholics, he might be assembling a transition team right now.

Some Democrats consider the 2004 presidential election to have been a wake-up call for the national Democratic party (in my experience, Democrats at the local and state level tend to be far more involved in and comfortable with religion than the party elite).

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel is apparently among those calling for a change. He said, “We (the Democrats) need a nominee and a party that is comfortable with faith and values....people aren't going to hear what we say until we know that we don't approach them as Margaret Mead would with an anthropological experiment.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (a California Democrat), speaking on Lou Dobbs’ CNN show, said, “I think on the values side, the so-called religious-issues side, we have to enlarge that issue.” Senator Hillary Clinton of New York reportedly referred to herself as an “evangelical Christian” in her comments at the dedication of her husband’s presidential library.

And, writing in Slate, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich suggested, “Democrats need to talk more about [the issue of faith], and inspire more of it. But here again, I don't mean the Republican or right-wing evangelical version—faith in a particular religion or god, faith in final judgment. I mean the sort of faith on which all social progress has been based, and must be based—an irrational faith that it is possible, by working together, to create a more just nation and a more just world. . . . Democrats must generate [this kind of faith], over and over and over again.”

But that is not the solution. It merely underscores the problem. The very fact that Democrats and liberal-leaning pundits are talking about the party’s need for “a how-to guide for talking about religion in politics” (in Amy Sullivan’s words) shows that they don’t understand—much less share—the values of people of faith across the fruited plain.

Howard Dean made that mistake, bluntly stating that he would inject more Jesus talk into his campaign when it turned south (his campaign fizzled, however, before he had a chance to do so). John Kerry tried a subtler tack, referring to his “deep faith” more frequently as election day neared. Both men knew that seventy percent of Americans say they want their president to be a man of faith. But fifty percent say they don't want him to talk about it too much. What does that mean?

It may mean that the majority of Americans are more spiritually sophisticated than the Democratic party elite. They seem to exhibit at least a general agreement with Jesus, who said, on the one hand, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NIV) and, on the other hand, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1, NRSV). Those statements aren’t contradictory; they simply reflect the kind of outwardly consistent and inwardly sincere faith most of us want to see in our leaders.

By and large, Americans don’t want presidents (or governors, senators, or representatives, for that matter) who “get religion” because that’s a good idea, politically. They will not be impressed by candidates who learn to “talk a good game,” spiritually speaking. They aren’t looking for politicians who use their religion to get votes. They will be drawn to men and women whose faith is sincere and consistent, whether it’s an election year or not and who can talk comfortably about their faith because it’s an intrinsic part of their daily lives, not because it’s good strategy.

I have no doubt that many such Democrats are out there. But in the very act of looking for them (or, worse, cultivating them), the party will sabotage its own goals, for political calculation is no friend to spiritual sincerity. In other words, if they “get religion” in order to get votes, they just don’t get it.

This article appeared in the December 3, 2004 edition of the Hamilton Journal-News.

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