Post by Maverick on Aug 9, 2004 23:33:15 GMT -5
Americans trusting more in God
Click here to read the original article
Monday, Aug 9, 2004
By MICHAEL VALPY
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Religion has become a systemic, hard-wired feature of U.S. presidential elections, driven by a new coalition of conservative Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants and fuelled by fear that American culture is being taken over by militant secularism, according to the head of one of America's most respected public research organizations.
Luis Lugo, director of the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said he is frankly shocked by recent research showing that the United States stands increasingly alone among the advanced industrialized democracies as a deeply religious country. He pointed out that twice as many adult Americans as adult Canadians now consider religion personally important.
He said the key electoral constituencies of both the Republican and Democratic parties are now the two most highly religious segments of the U.S. public -- black Americans on the Democratic side and white evangelical Protestants on the Republican side, together representing more than a quarter of the electorate.
"The views of the two communities on religion and public life are virtually identical," Mr. Lugo said. "They differ on economic policy, they differ on foreign policy. But in talking about religion in public life, about taking religion into account in public policy and the use of religion in political campaigns -- these are the two communities from which we get the highest favourables in the country."
When the religious mix is adjusted to include conservative, observant Catholics, who are divided between the two parties, the total reaches about 40 per cent of the electorate, he said.
Mr. Lugo was a speaker at the annual conference of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs, held north of Toronto. The theme of this year's conference, which ended yesterday, was "God's Back with a Vengeance: Religion, Pluralism and the Secular State."
Mr. Lugo said the emerging alliance between more traditional Catholics and evangelical Christian Protestants is "one of the huge stories in U.S. politics -- it's a political realignment of major proportions."
He contrasted the 1960 presidential election, when John F. Kennedy had to travel into the Deep South's Protestant Bible Belt to promise that his Catholicism would have no influence on his public life, to the 2004 campaign, which has Catholic bishops cheered on by evangelical Protestant leaders telling Democratic candidate John Kerry to pay attention to Vatican teachings on abortion.
What Mr. Lugo called "the tussle between Kerry and the bishops" takes on huge significance, he said, because conservative Catholics are divided between the two parties and because many of them are concentrated in important swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"It's a fascinating reconfiguring and reshuffling of religion and political events in the U.S. What has caused it? My whole sense is . . . that it's a fear that a very militant secularism is driving religion from public life and increasingly besieging faithful believers."
Thus, in overwhelming numbers, Americans approve of politicians talking publicly about their religious beliefs and welcome the presence of religious discourse in public-policy debate -- a situation that puts them quite at odds with many Canadians.
Three-quarters of Americans think there's nothing wrong with President George W. Bush saying he relies on his religious beliefs to make decisions. Half of Americans say they would not vote for an atheist. Nearly 60 per cent believe journalists should question politicians about how their religious beliefs might affect their decisions.
The largest religious denomination in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 16 million members. Rev. Richard Land is president of the faith's ethics and religious liberty commission, lobbyist for the Southern Baptists in Washington, host of two nationally syndicated religious radio programs and a Bush appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In an interview, Rev. Land framed America's emerging public religiosity in the context of a U.S. backlash against secular immorality, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. He said former president Bill Clinton's philandering with Monica Lewinsky was God's judgment on America, and asserted that surveys show increasing numbers of young Americans in opposition to abortion.
Melissa Rogers, former legal counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and a professor of religion and public policy at North Carolina's Wake Forest University Divinity School, took a more measured view.
She acknowledged that "it looks very different and feels very different" to be in Canada, a difference she attributed to several factors, including "a reaction that our [American] culture is going to hell in a hand basket."
Prof. Rogers said there is a strong presence of evangelical Christianity in the United States that experiences faith as a commitment of one's whole life to a religious tradition.
She suggested that the emergence of strong public religiosity is the result of many Americans' misunderstanding of religion's constitutional protection. And she pointed out that public religiosity is not only a manifestation of the conservative stand on sexual and reproductive issues but also a voice on economic justice, universal health care and U.S. military issues.
"Morals are rooted in religion and Americans are saying we need to reassert a moral voice in our public spheres," she said.
She did allow, however, that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment helps Americans manage religious conflict by both forbidding government to promote religion and requiring government to protect the right to practise it.
Click here to read the original article
Monday, Aug 9, 2004
By MICHAEL VALPY
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Religion has become a systemic, hard-wired feature of U.S. presidential elections, driven by a new coalition of conservative Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants and fuelled by fear that American culture is being taken over by militant secularism, according to the head of one of America's most respected public research organizations.
Luis Lugo, director of the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said he is frankly shocked by recent research showing that the United States stands increasingly alone among the advanced industrialized democracies as a deeply religious country. He pointed out that twice as many adult Americans as adult Canadians now consider religion personally important.
He said the key electoral constituencies of both the Republican and Democratic parties are now the two most highly religious segments of the U.S. public -- black Americans on the Democratic side and white evangelical Protestants on the Republican side, together representing more than a quarter of the electorate.
"The views of the two communities on religion and public life are virtually identical," Mr. Lugo said. "They differ on economic policy, they differ on foreign policy. But in talking about religion in public life, about taking religion into account in public policy and the use of religion in political campaigns -- these are the two communities from which we get the highest favourables in the country."
When the religious mix is adjusted to include conservative, observant Catholics, who are divided between the two parties, the total reaches about 40 per cent of the electorate, he said.
Mr. Lugo was a speaker at the annual conference of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs, held north of Toronto. The theme of this year's conference, which ended yesterday, was "God's Back with a Vengeance: Religion, Pluralism and the Secular State."
Mr. Lugo said the emerging alliance between more traditional Catholics and evangelical Christian Protestants is "one of the huge stories in U.S. politics -- it's a political realignment of major proportions."
He contrasted the 1960 presidential election, when John F. Kennedy had to travel into the Deep South's Protestant Bible Belt to promise that his Catholicism would have no influence on his public life, to the 2004 campaign, which has Catholic bishops cheered on by evangelical Protestant leaders telling Democratic candidate John Kerry to pay attention to Vatican teachings on abortion.
What Mr. Lugo called "the tussle between Kerry and the bishops" takes on huge significance, he said, because conservative Catholics are divided between the two parties and because many of them are concentrated in important swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"It's a fascinating reconfiguring and reshuffling of religion and political events in the U.S. What has caused it? My whole sense is . . . that it's a fear that a very militant secularism is driving religion from public life and increasingly besieging faithful believers."
Thus, in overwhelming numbers, Americans approve of politicians talking publicly about their religious beliefs and welcome the presence of religious discourse in public-policy debate -- a situation that puts them quite at odds with many Canadians.
Three-quarters of Americans think there's nothing wrong with President George W. Bush saying he relies on his religious beliefs to make decisions. Half of Americans say they would not vote for an atheist. Nearly 60 per cent believe journalists should question politicians about how their religious beliefs might affect their decisions.
The largest religious denomination in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 16 million members. Rev. Richard Land is president of the faith's ethics and religious liberty commission, lobbyist for the Southern Baptists in Washington, host of two nationally syndicated religious radio programs and a Bush appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In an interview, Rev. Land framed America's emerging public religiosity in the context of a U.S. backlash against secular immorality, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. He said former president Bill Clinton's philandering with Monica Lewinsky was God's judgment on America, and asserted that surveys show increasing numbers of young Americans in opposition to abortion.
Melissa Rogers, former legal counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and a professor of religion and public policy at North Carolina's Wake Forest University Divinity School, took a more measured view.
She acknowledged that "it looks very different and feels very different" to be in Canada, a difference she attributed to several factors, including "a reaction that our [American] culture is going to hell in a hand basket."
Prof. Rogers said there is a strong presence of evangelical Christianity in the United States that experiences faith as a commitment of one's whole life to a religious tradition.
She suggested that the emergence of strong public religiosity is the result of many Americans' misunderstanding of religion's constitutional protection. And she pointed out that public religiosity is not only a manifestation of the conservative stand on sexual and reproductive issues but also a voice on economic justice, universal health care and U.S. military issues.
"Morals are rooted in religion and Americans are saying we need to reassert a moral voice in our public spheres," she said.
She did allow, however, that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment helps Americans manage religious conflict by both forbidding government to promote religion and requiring government to protect the right to practise it.
