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Red v. Blue,
Shame on Us
by Michael Carl
Now that the dust from
the recent presidential election has almost settled, it
might be appropriate to take a genuine faith-centered
look at the results.
Immediately following the election, a
few columnists at the nation’s newspaper of record
couldn’t resist the temptation to lambaste the folks in
the “Red States” (a false dichotomy from the get-go) as
backward, ignorant, superstitious, and clueless
bumpkins. Maureen Dowd’s words were
so loaded with venom that thinking persons should have
felt sick to their stomach.
Dowd wrote, “The president got re-elected by
dividing the country along fault lines of fear,
intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't
want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who
disagree to heel.
“W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq
-- drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or
''values voters,'' as they call themselves
(italics are mine), to the polls by opposing abortion,
suffocating stem cell research and supporting a
constitutional amendment against gay marriage.”
Ms. Dowd apparently doesn’t care for those who vote
according to their religious conscience, unless the
votes correspond with her world view.
Yet, the pundits on the right were just as uncharitable
to those on the other side. Ann
Coulter couldn’t resist taking a few potshots of her
own. In her November 18th
column she wrote, “Democrats are saying to voters:
How can you be so stupid to subordinate your own selfish
economic interests to "moral values," the betterment of
the country and the general welfare of people you don't
even know?”
Neither of these otherwise brilliant,
accomplished women leaves any room for the possibility
that some voters might have honestly agonized over the
choice. Neither account for the likelihood that many
voters probably winced and grimaced as they cast their
vote for the “lesser of two evils.”
Analysis that labels honest, faith-filled
Americans as either Red State or Blue State adherents
cheapens the heart of people of faith.
In his recent book, God’s Politics: Why
the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It,
politically progressive evangelical pastor Jim Wallis
quite properly casts political stones at both political
camps.
The Rev. Wallis is on target as he observes
that in many cases, conservatives have merely cloaked
their politics in religious jargon to win support for
the Republican Party. He’s equally on target when he
critiques the left as arrogantly asserting that people
who believe the Bible are ignorant, uneducated dolts who
base their lives on fairy tales.
The truth is, and as painful as it may be
to admit, neither political party completely represents
a Biblical world view.
The Rev. Wallis makes his best contributions
to the pubic debate when he says that there is a very
proper place for people of faith in politics. Rev.
Wallis eloquently states the case for faith in the
public discourse when he writes, “The separation of
church and state does not require banishing moral and
religious values from the public square. In fact,
America’s social fabric depends on such values and
vision to shape our politics—a dependence the founder’s
recognized.”
He continues, “It is indeed possible (and
necessary) to express one’s faith and convictions about
public policy while still respecting the pluralism of
American democ-racy.”
Amen!
People of faith have always been in the
forefront of the great reform movements.
In Britain, it was the Rev. John Wesley who
sowed the seeds of the abolitionist movement. It was
the Christian member of Parliament William Wilberforce
who began a thirty year crusade to pass laws to outlaw
it throughout the British Empire.
The truth of the matter is that people of
faith have always been involved in America’s greatest
social movements. While some churches fraudulently
interpreted the Scriptures to justify slavery, it was
Northern Baptists and Methodists who championed the
abolitionist movement. People of faith like William
Jennings Bryan championed the cause to abolish child
labor.
No one can dispute the impact people of
faith like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rev.
Ralph Abernathy had on the Civil Rights movement.
The bottom line is this. Regardless
of what the poisoned word processor of any columnist
says, people of faith have a rightful place in the arena
of ideas. Political discourse
properly informed by a faith clothed in the mercy of God
will always make a healthy contribution to American life
and public policy.
Michael Carl
is a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, pastor of a church
in Wakefield, MA and is president of The Heritage
Alliance, a public policy research group. |
