Strange Bedfellows Religion and politics are becoming too-easy partners in today’s America By Dennis Crews October 1984 — On my desk right now there is a slick, four-color magazine called the Presidential Biblical Scoreboard. Forty pages long, it attempts to place before readers the issues its editors think are morally the most important in the coming election. The magazine undertakes the arcane task of explaining just who stands for what among the current crop of political candidates. The editorial box makes the objective clear: “Politics is the business of deciding who gets what, when and where. Christians dare not leave such vital business to unbelievers…By using our Scoreboard and voting for candidates who support Judeo-Christian values, you will be doing your Christian duty in helping reclaim America for God.” A new strain of religious zealotry seems to have sprung from the ashes of an earlier and darker age in Western civilization. Call it a spiritual awakening or call it blind fanaticism, but the closer you look the harder it is to tell whether the “me generation” has finally gotten religion, or Christianity has been infected by the blind ambition of the times. Whichever way one views it, the new movement has stirred up the largest election-year hornet’s nest in recent memory. No issue in America today is more likely to touch off political fireworks than just where the line separating church and state should fall – and that’s precisely where the battle zone is today. Abortion, arms control, the federal deficit, school busing and a host of other domestic and foreign policy issues have come under recent and close scrutiny by the self-appointed watchdogs of American morality. Claiming their prerogatives on no less than the authority of Heaven, their agenda includes not only enacting legislation to enforce righteousness in the land, but also purging the political system of every player whose views, practices and voting record do not square with their own brand of religious fundamentalism. To help its readers, or more likely to secure the readers’ help in accomplishing this, the Presidential Biblical Scoreboard contains complex tables listing both House and Senate incumbents and their challengers, along with their voting records on a mixed bag of issues ranging from capital punishment and nuclear weapons to the equal rights amendment and school prayer. Paul Weyrich, a former journalist with a penchant for right-wing causes, is considered by many to be the architect behind the current preachers-into-politics movement. He has been instrumental in organizing a multitude of separate religious and political forces into a united, comprehensive network of foundations and political action committees (PACs). Tapping the wealth and talent of other like-minded individuals, such as beer magnate Joseph Coors and direct-mail entrepreneur Richard Viguerie, Weyrich’s organizations have pumped unprecedented amounts of money and support into the campaigns and lobbying efforts of conservative candidates and causes. But the battle plan goes far beyond merely holding up the hands of the righteous. There is work to be done down in the trenches – dirty work that betrays a darker side of this modern-day morality play. Before the good guys can really consolidate their power in government, all the villains must be routed. Since the United States is a democratic society that embraces a plurality of religious and political opinions, this is far from a simple task. But all is fair in love and war, and the warriors of the new right have found the weapon that works best for them. It is the political action committee.
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Stirring up hostilities is the secret of success Most of the political action committees (PACs) that ply the political waters today can best be described as modern-day vigilante groups. And of all the PACs that have made their presence felt in Washington, none has become so successful and so dreaded as the National Conservative Political Action Committee, or NCPAC (“Nickpac”). In 1980, NCPAC raised well over 7 million dollars to battle its ideological enemies. In the years since, its budget has swelled to even greater proportions. NCPAC, the creation of conservative attorney John Terry Dolan and several others, has become the attack squadron and virtual mouthpiece for the religious right wing. Armed with millions of dollars garnered through direct-mail fund-raising (a la Richard Viguerie), NCPAC begins working on a new “hit list” every election season. Once any politician has been targeted for political death by NCPAC, his career is destined for jeopardy, if not extinction. Exploiting the potential of negative media advertising and the direct mail smear campaign to the utmost, NCPAC has been devastatingly successful in its efforts. Dolan is characteristically nonchalant about what he calls the “gut-cutting” nature of his organization. Stirring up hostilities, he admits, is the secret of NCPAC’s success. “We are trying to be divisive,” he has said. “The shriller you are, the better it is to make money.” As if all this were not crass enough, there have been numerous instances when NCPAC has been charged with spreading false information through its television commercials. When caught redhanded, NCPAC would not retract its claims until after the commercials had already registered their maximum impact. Though he stops short of admitting it is a NCPAC tactic, Dolan has been widely quoted as having confessed: “A group like ours could lie through its teeth, and the candidate it helps stays clean.” Indeed, there is a war going on, but the closer one looks, the less holy it appears. The advent of the Christian crusaders has engendered a whole new style of politics. In a realm where hype and hucksterism have always been rampant, the fundamentalist right has propelled the art of demagoguery to unprecedented heights. Drawing its strength as much from prejudice and fear as from a nostalgic longing for the national values of an earlier generation, this movement is unlike any other in America’s history. Not only has it captured the imagination of a whole segment of the population, but it has done so largely on the strength of its own claim to be the right arm of God in the land. In a 1980 mass mailing for the then-fledgling Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell declared, “God has called me to do more than just preach; He has called me to take action. I have a divine mandate to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will save America.” “We are radicals” Political organizer Paul Weyrich carries this theme to its inevitable conclusion when he describes the objectives of his various organizations: “We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country.” What they plan to replace it with may be unclear to a great many Americans, but those who are spearheading the drive up the high road are anything but ambiguous. Gary Potter, one of the original co-strategists with Weyrich’s Free Congress Research and Education Foundation (and also a member of Catholics for Political Action), has summed up their goals neatly: “After the
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Christian majority takes over,” he says, “pluralism will be seen as immoral and evil and the state will not permit anybody the right to practice evil.” Many people, however, are wondering just who will be the ones to define what evil really is. Throughout history whenever church and state have become entangled, good and evil have ultimately come to be defined by whatever happens to be either expedient or inconvenient for the government. And the troubling, timeless truth about human nature is that the very worst moral evils are often skillfully disguised as righteousness and lauded by the world. However desirable righteous government may seem, there will never really be any such thing until Christ returns to claim His redeemed, and all the kingdoms of the earth have passed away. In the meantime, we would do well to place our earthly Hopes only on the kind of government that understands its own limitations. It is interesting to note that much of the movement for national reform today seems to derive its impetus from God’s promises to the pre-Christian nation of Israel. The words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 are flourished like a banner under which a veritable ecumenical revival has been formed: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” These words, spoken to King Solomon after the dedication of the great temple he had built, reflect the tender regard in which God holds all His redeemed. Israel, however, rejected God’s efforts to make their nation a vessel of salvation for all peoples of the world. When the Jews at last killed Christ, they put away from themselves all possibility of fulfilling God’s original purpose for them. The concept of Jewishness no longer signified any special status or privilege. Paul made it clear that nationality now made no difference in the spiritual scheme of things. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28,29). Religious laws no guarantor of blessing The only privilege to be conferred on any person, then, is dependent upon that person’s individual relationship with Christ. There will be no ride to national glory on the wake of a school prayer amendment, or anti-abortion legislation, or a clear-cut military advantage, or even a national day of rest (which would, incidentally, be a Sunday law). For God’s favor has nothing to do with any righteousness we make for ourselves, much less what we make for our nation. If things were otherwise, then the Jews of Christ’s time would certainly have been the holiest people who ever lived on the face of the earth. They had religious laws governing every aspect of life, down to the minutest detail. Even the washing of cups and pots, and the number of steps one could take on the Sabbath day were legislated. Yet Jesus called them a “generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites,” He rebuked, “as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ... Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:6-9). The most unnerving aspect of politics today is how closely conditions resemble those of Christ’s time. Harking back to the Old Testament Jewish theocracy to defend the passing of religious laws, fundamentalist leaders of our own time will turn about face and label Christians who
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faithfully keep all ten of God’s commandments as legalists. Particular disdain is reserved for those who honor the fourth commandment, which calls God’s authority and creative power to remembrance. It defies every tenet of common sense for evangelicals who desire a return to righteous government to attack Sabbathkeeping. Breaking the Sabbath was the very sin which caused God’s blessing to be removed from ancient Israel (Ezekiel 19:1224). Yet tradition prevails, even to the setting aside of God’s law. Some things just never seem to change. The warriors of the new right crusade tirelessly against secular humanism, pornography, homosexuality and every other stripe of immorality. In return for the right size donation, Jerry Falwell’s supporters were recently offered a packet of X-rated snapshots taken by his young son in the streets of San Francisco, depicting the colorful types of perversion Falwell’s ministry is presumably helping to eradicate. Like the accusers of the adulterous woman dragged to Jesus’ feet, they clutch their garments in apparent horror at the fleshly weakness of their fellow men. Yet Jesus had some words for the “moral majority” of His day: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone” (John 8:7). His most scathing rebukes were directed not at the world which knew itself to be sinful, but at the religious leaders – whose professed piety obstructed the way into truth for the wounded, sin-sick, but sincerely penitent ones. Severity of religious laws will not cause repentance Those who do not understand the true character of God can scarcely be expected to love and revere the kind of deity that has been portrayed by the self-appointed religious leaders who have arisen down through the ages. Like the scribes and Pharisees, their organizations always seem to lose sight of the fact that it is the goodness of God, and not the severity of religious laws, that brings men to repentance (Romans 2:4). A recent letter to the editor of TIME magazine makes a powerful point: “The ominous move by evangelicals ... to intimidate the government into enacting denominational dogma into public law is a crushing admission of failure by the clergy”(October 8,1984). Believers whose faith is solidly grounded in the living Christ will bring enlightened values into their everyday lives, which include their political involvements. Yet they will need no religious labels for what they choose to do or not to do. It is a desperate, corrupt and empty religion which resorts to political coercion for effecting social change which its spiritual ministry has failed to accomplish. It is worth examining how Jesus related to the issue of political involvement in His own day. After His miracle of feeding five thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fishes, the people were convinced that the time for their national deliverance had come. Their hopes soared, for among them was One whose power could easily break the yoke of the hated Romans. He could heal the soldiers who were wounded in battle. He could supply whole armies with food. He could make Judea an earthly paradise, a land flowing with milk and honey. At last the people of Israel could enjoy their long-sought and (they believed) much-deserved dominion. In their enthusiasm they were ready at once to crown Him king. Seeing Christ’s meekness, they consulted together to take Him by force, and proclaim Him king of Israel. Even the disciples united with the multitude and declared their Master to be the rightful heir to David’s throne. But it was not to be. “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” (John 6:15). He understood, as the multitude did not, the workings of the human heart. He had not come to
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satisfy the Jews’ carnal desire for national greatness, but rather to draw souls into the spiritual kingdom of heaven, a reality they could scarcely comprehend. Nowhere did Jesus speak with more eloquence and humility of His kingdom than in Pilate’s judgment hall. After being bound, smitten and abused, He was asked by Pilate, “Art thou the king of the Jews?” In reply, Jesus explicitly stated, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered unto the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” When pressed further, He offered His final words of explanation – simple, profound words that expressed His entire mission on earth: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:36, 37). Neither enticement nor suffering could deter Jesus from accomplishing His mission. He commanded more power than those around Him could possibly have imagined, yet when asked to exercise it in His and the disciples’ own behalf, rebuked the ones who suggested it. “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,” He told them (Luke 9:55). When faced with the basest accusations and the diabolical plottings of a wholly corrupt government, He made no move to politicize His own mission. Gross injustice screamed at Him from every hand, yet His mission was clearly defined from the beginning. He patiently bore witness to the truth, and turned neither to the left nor to the right until He was finished. Keeping separate the sacred and the profane How unlike the holy, harmless Lamb of God are so many who claim to be His representatives in America today! In their fixation on dogma and ideology, they have omitted “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23). Indeed, they seem to have forgotten altogether that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). They are venomous toward their opponents and implacable in their desire for revenge. Their words are calculated to make them seem righteous, but as individuals, they are inevitably being shaped by their own ruthless strategies. Unless their eyes are opened, their very beliefs ultimately will become no more than tools in service to the spirit that controls them. War is evolution in reverse. It makes beasts of men. And the most insidious warfare of all is ideological warfare, for its violence is concealed within the minds of men. Its byproducts – bigotry, mistrust and hatred – work like drugs; they produce a sense of moral euphoria that masks the real damage being done. The fruits of the Spirit are banished from such minds. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance have no medium in which to grow. Instead of storming the political scene, Christians ought to be ministering salvation to the lost. Wounded souls are searching for a balm for their sin-sickness, and Jesus is that balm. But where is Jesus in the agenda of the Moral Majority? or NCPAC? or Catholics for Political Action? and the list continues. If Christ were walking the earth today, would He be using His church to conduct a voter registration drive? Or would He take a scourge and drive the profane traffic out of the house of God? Christian Americans share the privileges and responsibilities of all Americans, including participation in the political process. Yet of all people, Christians should best understand the difference between the things which pertain unto Caesar and the things which pertain unto God.
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It is up to Christians to help our government make the same distinction. When that distinction becomes hopelessly blurred, our freedom will be a thing of the past. Paradoxical as it may seem, without freedom from state-sponsored religion – even Christianity – there can be no such thing as freedom of religion. Because the very essence of freedom is the ability to say yes or no. Martin Luther expressed it well. Man has only one freedom – to say no to God. Without the liberty to reject God, we would be unable to choose God. Worship would be a meaningless ritual. That is why God gave Adam and Eve the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree and the choice. The work of the gospel thrives where there is freedom. But what difficulties, what obstacles are imposed when men think to rob their fellow men of the freedom to choose their own souls’ destinies! We know that “the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:40), but let us not shorten the day by allowing politicians to blunder where even angels will not tread. The world is torn by religious violence, from Ireland to Iran and beyond. Leaders of almost every major religion today, including Christianity, are justifying the use of force and violence to satisfy a wide assortment of worldly ambitions. Calling on the names of their gods, they have made the jihad, or “holy war,” a familiar media term of the 1980s. How long will it be before the jihad comes to our own fair shores? American Christians will help determine the answer, by the attitudes they cherish and the alliances they form. And by the votes they cast or withhold. At no time in our history have these words held more urgency: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
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