One nation under God

Like many things today, it is both funny and scary how deeply interwoven religion has become with the political establishment (and by religion, of course, I mean Evangelical Christianity). Lately this topic has begun to get the coverage it deserves, at least in the progressive blogosphere, where writers wax with lacrymal discomfort on the erosion of the constitutional separation of these two institutions. However, I do not wish to add to the growing body of religion/politics coverage with this modest contribution, and prefer to take a different approach to the question.

It is an undisputed fact that religion, particularly the variety mentioned above, plays a major role in the lives of the majority of Americans. Some 85% of us profess Christianity as our faith, and a good portion of us belong to denominations that, for the last 30 or so years, have been bound into a Faustian alliance with conservative politics. In fact, so religious is our nation that there is only one self-confessed atheist in the entire congress (Pete Stark). Observing the overwhelming majority of Americans who are religious, therefore, it is not too surprising that the Good Creed has entered into politics and is informing the decisions of our ruling elite. After all, if one's moral code demands that the world function in a certain way (ie. no gay marriage, no abortions, etc.), doesn't it make sense for that individual to elect a politician who is going to fight to make their restrictive orientation a federally-mandated reality?

Both common sense and the current state of affairs tells us "yes." In the past week, this intermingling of faith and politics has even taken up the audacious question of actually amending the Consitution. Yes, in recent speeches by Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas governor has suggested setting "God's standard" down as the law of the land:

"I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

Wow. Whatever God's standards are (and Mr. Huckabee surely has a press-pass to the Divine Mind), and irrespective of how he would implement them, this sort of rhetoric really seems to work with lots of people. And Democrats are not innocent on this front. Even if one's candidate of choice is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, a good strong Christian leader is what voters want (Obama's recent faith-based brochures in South Carolina are yet another indication of how important this population is on the way to the White House).

It stands to reason that voters are faithful enough to want their religious ideas to, if not overtly inform the political process, at least influence decisions from a distance. It would be easy, considering the political clout of the faithful, to assume that all individuals really understand the religious convictions that drive them. If the institution of organized Evangelical Christianity is at the wheel of our democracy - or is at least a singularly bossy back-seat driver - shouldn't we assume that the ideas powering the political machine are well-grasped by their adherents?

In light of this assumption, a recent Gallup survey (reported in the Economist Dec.22 issue) is, like everything else these days, funny and scary. Here are the results:

- Less than half of all Americans know the name of the first book of the Bible.
- Only a third know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Billy Graham is a popular answer).
- A quarter do not know what is celebrated on Easter.
- 60% cannot name half of the Ten Commandments.
- 12% think Noah was married to Joan of Arc.

Now that you've gotten the laughing out of your system you can start crying.

Can it even be said that an individual is "one of the faithful" when they know so pitifully little about their own faith? What this stunning poll reveals to me is that the commandeering of our government by religious fundamentalism is not necessarily about the tenets of religion at all: it is about collective ignorance and the power of a few to exploit this information asymmetry. Indeed, many of the issues taken up by right-wing Evangelicals aren't addressed by their religious texts at all, and if they were better educated in the Bible, they might be able to see through the chicanery to make smarter, more informed decisions.

A great example of this can be found in the abortion debate. There's too much screaming going on right now to actually look at the facts, but the truth is the Bible says nothing on the subject. This fact is convincingly elucidated by Garry Wills in an Op-Ed in the LA Times, Nov.4 2007. According to Wills, abortion was really a non-issue in global Christiandom until Roe vs. Wade; even Thomas Aquinas defines the beginning of personhood as when "the intellectual soul" is infused into the baby. Throughout the ages the church has either been apathetic or guardedly supportive on the issue of abortion. It has only been in the last 40 years that American Christians have started claiming it as a religious issue.

What are we to make of all of this? I close with an unorthodox suggestion: let's elect Mike Huckabee president. Perhaps a Huckabee administration would see to it that prayer and scripture are put back in the school where they belong. He might even make Bible study classes mandatory, and it goes without saying that he would refashion the Constitution and the judiciary to abide by Christian principles. If we elected Huckabee, he would make sure that the Christian faith played a prominent role in the governing of this nation, and in doing so, perhaps people would get around to understanding their faith better. Once they comprehend the true Christian message, they will be appalled at the world they just helped create.