Pastor’s Page ~ October 2008

My pastor never talked about politics. Or if he did, I wasn’t listening at the time. My ear was probably glued to a little transistor radio that, with the help of a wire earphone, enabled me to follow the Cincinnati Reds’ postseason exploits. Of course, those were the days when the “big Red machine” had postseasons. In the 1960’s, Dr. King was preaching racial tolerance and equality, but I never heard a word in my church on those subjects. The war in Vietnam was a quagmire in the early ‘70’s, but “blessed are the peacemakers” didn’t evoke a sermon on the subject. And the Watergate scandal ended the presidency of Richard Nixon, and yet the ethical behavior of those called to public service was never considered a topic to be broached in the pulpit.

Politics was politics; and religion was religion. And never the twain would meet. But religion and politics have always been inseparable in America. Dr. Steven Carter of Yale Law School recalled Dwight Eisenhower affirming that a strong belief in God was the foundational principle of Americanism; that Theodore Roosevelt once stated that the president should go to church regularly as an example to his constituents; and that Abraham Lincoln’s believed how a person interpreted the Bible determined your side during the Civil War. In other words, religion has always been infused into politics.

It is no different in this election cycle. We now know that Joe Biden is a Roman Catholic who believes in choice; Barack Obama had a pastor who said “God damn America”; Sarah Palin received a blessing from an African evangelist who rode a witch out of her village on a rail; and that John McCain is an Episcopalian who occasionally attends a Baptist Church. In other words, the religion of political candidates is a matter of supreme importance to many Americans. But should it be?

My family and I recently watched “John Adams” on DVD, based on the book by David McCullough. Our second president was an intellectual giant, a visionary thinker, a single-minded advocate of American freedom. But he could also be petty and petulant, prone to obsess over his detractors and hold longstanding grudges. And yet, he was a man of deep faith. Again and again he called upon reliance on “providence” during times of personal and political crisis. Our American forebears were no less human than us, but far less likely, it seems, to be swayed by the divisive banter about which candidate is really a closet Muslim or who has a gambling addiction or whether Alaska will be a refuge for end time fundamentalists.

In the book, Harpo Speaks About New York, the silent Marx brother recalled his favorite childhood holiday. Even as non-observant Jews, they were too poor for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Election Day belonged to everyone, said Harpo. The city closed up; hansom cabs (paid for by Tammany Hall) would cart the men off to the polls; there was free beer and free fireworks. As night fell, the tenements emptied and bonfires filled the streets. Harpo writes:

“Grandpa enjoyed the sight as much as I did, and he was flattered when I left the rest of the boys to come up to share it with him. He pulled his chair closer to the window and lit the butt of his Tammany stogie. “Ah, we are lucky to be in America”, he said in German. “This is the true democracy”. I had no idea what Grandpa was talking about, but he was a man of great faith and whatever he said was the truth.

Dr. Carter once wrote that a religion which makes no difference in the life of the believer is not really worthy of its name. Politics will always try to domesticate religious faith. But we are lucky to be in America. And we are blessed to be disciples of Christ. And it is our faith—not the faith of any particular politician--that gives us the ability to decide on a candidates’ worthiness solely on merit alone.

Pastor Kevan T. Hitch