God and Political Communication by Kasim Ercan Ekenler

Religion and spirituality have shared a role in the history of the United States. As the currency proclaims, Americans trust in god. The founding fathers of this country, though many were men of faith, understood the dangers of mixing religion and politics. They made the United States political system secular and specifically separated church and state. But they also understood the importance of religion in the lives of Americans, and provided protection for citizens to practice any faith they chose to practice. Religion and spirituality has continued to be important in the lives of Americans, though its influence and popularity has fluctuated. Most recently, cultural conservatives and the religious right joined forces with former President George W. Bush and saw their influence in America, especially American politics, greatly increase. This increased influence, especially with the most powerful figure in American politics, the President of the United States, brings into question how to forge a compromise between a secular political system and a political system meant to represent citizens who are deeply religious. During his presidency, George W. Bush walked a fine line with political rhetoric attempting to speak to citizens whose politics were guided by religious values while avoiding alienating citizens who were fearful of mixing secular politics with religious morals. Although he was very successful in reaching this compromise, the former president, as well as the media, often paid too much lip service to "wedge issues" such as abortion. These types of issues must have been a major reason the founding fathers chose to separate church and state. Wedge issues are too contentious and distracting to allow for productive advancement of the country. Religion is important to many people because it provide a moral framework for creating a personal value system. It is strong, consistent value systems that allow people to elect officials who will create legislation that protects and honors citizen's values. While I appreciate the values of both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice supporters, it seems the disagreement distracts us from the main point of the establishment of a new health care system. Life and choice are important values not just for unborn children and pregnant women, but to every citizen. Yet all three major factions of the religious right fail to consider the Health Care Reform Bill beyond an amendment to prohibit the coverage for abortion procedures. This offends me, and stinks of hypocrisy. If the sanctity of EVERY human life is at stake, why is the religious right so concerned with such a small percentage of lives at stake in this bill? Not all religious groups have missed the point; the United Church of Christ, as well as Sojourners have recognized that health care reform is directly supported by their value system. Religion is a personal tool best used to identify and communicate a value system, not a political tool used to divide people and build a constituency; I hope to see religion used to promote values upon which people agree.
George W. Bush, despite the criticism he received for misusing religion for political gains, understood that religion was a personal tool used to make decisions based on personal values. Religion had allowed the former president to alter his lifestyle from one in which he made choices he did not value to one that was guided by his values, one that was purpose driven. (Please ignore the Rick Warren reference, if distracting. But here's the full distraction, if you are interested: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/Home/home.htm) Although I believe religion to be a deeply personal journey, we can learn things from other people's journey. I enjoy hearing other people's stories, especially if I my story is similar and we share experiences. I have no patience for someone trying to convince me that the path they have chosen is the past I must or even should choose. George W. Bush did an excellent job finding this compromise in his political rhetoric. Steve Waldman, editor of Beliefnet, explians that Bush "very good at using religious language that evokes certain messages to certain constituencies without freaking out everyone else. If you look at Bush's religious rhetoric, a lot of it has to do with a very broad general description of God as a supporting figure, as a figure of strength, as a figure who's watching over history. None of that is something that's going to scare people. And yet this certain language that turns on light bulbs over the heads of certain voters." (Waldman, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/interviews/waldman.html) Because Bush understood the importance of this compromise, he chose not to address the contentious issue of abortion. Although this was a disappointment to his constituency, George W. Bush only supported a ban on partial abortion, which is more evenly supported by American citizens. (Waldman) Although Bush personally opposes abortion, he understood that it has become a political issue. Supporting it would have distracted him from passing legislation that more closely represented the value systems of most American citizens.
The abortion issue has become a moral distraction for the religious right, distracting the right from a health care reform that has the opportunity to more widely protect "the sanctity of human life." Jim Wallis, editor of the evangelical magazine, Sojourners, believes that the religious right has defined moral issues almost exclusively in terms the wedge issues: "they narrow everything down to one or two issues: abortion and gay marriage." (Lumsden) He continues to explain this mistake:
I am an evangelical Christian, and I can’t ignore thousands of verses in the Bible on [another] subject, which is poverty. I say at every stop, “Fighting poverty’s a moral value, too.” There’s a whole generation of young Christians who care about the environment. That’s their big issue. Protecting God’s creation, they would say, is a moral value, too. And, for a growing number of Christians, the ethics of war—how and when we go to war, whether we tell the truth about going to war—is a religious and moral issue as well. (Lumsden)

Health care reform fits directly into this argument: the religious right has missed the boat on health care reform and only concern themselves with the health of unborn children. Visiting the web pages of the major religious right ministries reveals this grave mistake. Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network has only one article about health care reform, "Abortion Funding: HC Reform's Last Hurdle" (http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2009/November/Abortion-Funding-Could-Make-or-Break-HC-Reform-/), and shows no links to other information about health care reform. Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family site posts a "Top Story" about health care reform, but again the story is about the Stupak-Pitts abortion amendment, and not a single article describes the other aspects of health care reform. (http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000011423.cfm) "Family Research Council Praises Passage of Pro-life Amendment to Health Care Bill" is the article linked to the "Action Alert" on the Family Research Council home page. (http://www.frc.org/pressrelease/family-research-council-praises-passage-of-pro-life-amendment-to-health-care-bill) Health care reform has the opportunity to provide health care to millions of uninsured and under-insured human beings, and these powerful groups have chosen not to communicate any of this information to its constituency. Although their value system should support it, it does not support it through political communication.
Some religious groups do acknowledge the agreement between the spirit of health care reform and a value system based on Christian morals. Jim Wallis puts his money where his mouth is; his magazine is vigorously supporting health care reform and its ability to combat poverty in America. The magazine's website, sojourner.com, boasts an extensive Health Reform Campaign in the "Faith in Action" section of his webpage. This website provides extensive links to morality-based articles on health reform as well as objective, information based articles on health care reform, and links that allow citizens to actively participate in the debate on health care reform. The value system promoted by sojourner as well as the mission statement are clearly supported by their stance on health care reform. In addition, they actively communicate this stance to their constituency. On the front page of The United Church of Christ's website is a link to the article "UCC leader lauds House passage of health care reform legislation." The UCC not only supports health care reform, but it has passed a resolution within the church to support a legislative bill such as H.R. 676. The highly contested "public option" is the part of health care reform that most completely addresses the issue of uninsured and under-insured Americans. They have made their public communication on this issue not only loud and clear, but formal and definite.
For whatever political reason, the religious right has chosen not to articulate in public their support for a bill that would provide all Americans basic health care. They have chosen to ignore a value system that claims to fight for the sanctity of all human life. And in the face of this grave oversight, they use the same argument to talk ONLY about the issue of abortion. Other religious groups have not made the same mistake, and have public embraced legislation that supports a value system developed through spiritual, moral beliefs. These values are held by most Americans, and whether accomplished by religious leaders or political leaders, communicating these values allows for a secular government that represents a religious citizenry. Additionally, it provides religious leaders and spiritual citizens to ask questions about the values that are communicated by our religious organizations, especially when a political issue is at stake. It seems that the risk of the overlap of church and state might also be a concern for churches, especially if religious values are being neglected because of politics.


Works Cited

Lumsden, Michael. "God's Politics: An Interview with Jim Wallis." Motherjones.com, March 10, 2005. (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/03/gods-politics-interview-jim-wallis)

Waldman, Steve. "Frontline, The Jesus Factor, Interviews." Pbs.org, December 5, 2003. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/interviews/waldman.html)