Religion and Politics can Mix

By Jacques Berlinerblau - Washington Post, On Faith
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Web Link
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April 14, 2008

There were many winners at Sunday night’s Compassion Forum at Messiah College and no discernible losers as far as I could tell.

For starters, the sponsoring and organizing group, Faith in Public Life, handled logistics superbly. FPL is setting an agenda and it is doing so with a “Big Tent” philosophy of letting different religious Americans bring their concerns to the fore. Last night a theologically diverse group of pre-selected clergy asked questions about euthanasia, environmental concerns, poverty, AIDS, the relation between science and faith, and so on. In so doing, they broadened the issue palette pertaining to religious politicking considerably. This is where Faith in Public Life is making a major contribution to national discourse.

All of this was done--note this--without castigating or excluding secular Americans. The moderators Campbell Brown and Jon Meacham--let me thank them in advance-- asked both candidates to comment on the assertion that “religion already has way too much influence in political life and public life.” Senator Clinton responded:

"I understand why some people, even religious people, even people of faith might say, why are you having this forum? And why are you exploring these issues from two people who are vying to be president of the United States? And I think that's a fair question to ask. I am here because I think it's also fair for us to have this conversation. But I'm very conscious of how thoughtful we must proceed."

Senator Obama offered a somewhat different answer. He contrasted the Democratic Party of old (read the folks who had militantly expurgated faith from public life) with the Republican Party of today (read the folks who have abused religion in politics). Riffing on themes from his Audacity of Hope and arguing that a happy medium could be found, Obama closed by saying: “We are a Jewish nation; we are a Buddhist nation; we are a Muslim nation; Hindu nation; and we are a nation of atheists and nonbelievers.”

(Factor in that “On Faith” columnist Eboo Patel asked a question of Senator Clinton in which he observed that “Americans of all faith and no faith at all believe in compassion,” and it becomes clear that nonbelievers in America had their best night in the public square since Carl Sagan’s Cosmos debuted on PBS).