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More on the Role of Religion in Politics

In this article, it is an interview conducted with Cokie Roberts who is an expert of religion and politics.  She answers questions on how religion has influenced public policy in America and what kinds of effects this could have in the future.  Roberts says that religion has always played a role in policy in America, ever since the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence.  In class, we have learned that religion played a heavy influence on the founding fathers and some of them even rejected it.  This lead to a government that was more separated from Church and state but other influences played a role as well in the formation of the United States government down the road which has made people question the secularity of the US government.  One instance which we talked about in class is that "In God, We Trust" is printed on our currency which makes it seem like religion and politics are very closely related.  Then, Roberts is asked the question "which presidents have defended the separation of church and state" and she answers that President Jefferson.  It was not until the presidents after him that more people began to talk about freedom of religion.  In class, we learned that Jefferson was actually a deist so it would make sense for him to have this point of view about religion and state being separated and having their own domains.  A deist, as we learned in class, is someone who believes that God made the world but then "took a step back" and does not interfere with it.   Finally, Roberts talks about the somewhat recent issue of President Trump separating immigrant children from their families.   She talks about how Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham, who we learned about in class who helped establish liberty university) is still an ardent supporter of Trump despite the issue.  This proves that sometimes religion can be overlooked, depending on the policy but religion is a still a strong deciding factor in many religious arguments.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/622138034/what-role-does-religion-play-in-american-politics

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The Uprising of the Religious Left

In this article, it discusses the idea that religion can be invoked as a way to call people to higher values.  This applies to young people and how they can be part of the democratic party but not be alienated by the fact that they practice religion.  In class, we learned that a lot of people who are secular tend to be Democratic.  However, in this article, it states that roughly 59% of registered Democratic voters consider themselves to be Christian.  The article states that the religious left already exists in our political climate, but the group just lacks the funds to be considered as a bloc in the already existing political climate.  As we have learned in class, money is one of the main tenants to be influential in politics and in religion as well.  The article then starts to discuss that the demographics of the Democratic party are changing and that is why many Democratic candidates in the 2020 elections are starting to adapt to a "post-Christian" campaign.  This means that the Democratic bloc is changing and that politicians are catering more towards those who do not identify with a religion, a demographic called the "nones".  However, the article has stated that there are people with a faith that are still Democratic so it would be more favorable for politicians to cater to their audience more.  In class, we have learned that many politicians use religion as a motive for people to go out and vote for them.  This could also be the case in the future rhetoric of candidates for the 2020 elections.  The article goes on to say that these religious Democrats have started grassroots movements and have begun to mobilize a group.  Only time will tell what will grows and become of this group in the future.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-religious-left-is-always-just-about-to-happen-will-it-ever-arrive/2019/04/11/f4500bc6-5c83-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html?utm_term=.d6b6843995b0

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Is Trump “biblical”?

In this article, it discusses the support President Trump has been receiving from evangelical Christian voters, which has been considered odd by political analysts.  Mentioned in the article is Michelle Bachmann, a former Republican House member from Minnesota, says that we will "never see a more godly, biblical president again in our lifetime".  Bachmann was also one of Trump's evangelical advisers during his 2016 presidential campaign, so that may explain the bias she held.  In fact, Trump has been divorced twice which is forbidden by the Bible.  The article first attempts to define what Bachmann means by "religious".  Most of the time, this refers to his stand on policy issues like Israel, abortion, and immigration and not really focused on his own morality.  In fact, Trump has not been very open by his faith before and during his presidency.  During his campaign season, he has stated he is Presbyterian and he loves to go to Church.  However, Trump has not been seen going to Church and is only seen doing so during special events such as Christmas and Easter.  We have learned in class that religiosity is tied to how often a person goes to Church, so this is proving a case against Trump in that he is not very religious and how his campaign team used religious rhetoric to win over the majority of evangelical voters.  The article also brings up several other instances of Trump disproving his own religiosity.  One of the other instances that the article brings up is when he goes to Liberty University 2016 and incorrectly refers to a Bible verse as "two Corinthians" when it should have been "second Corinthians".  This caused laughter from the students present because they knew he referencing the Bible verse incorrectly.  We have learned about Liberty University in class, it is the school that Billy Graham helped to found.  It is a Christian college where the students learn things with a more Christian spin on ideas.   These things help to prove that religiosity of a candidate doesn't necessarily determine whether they will be in Office or not.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/politics/michele-bachman-donald-trump-bible-religious/index.html

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Pete Buttigieg and the 2020 elections

In this article, it discusses the future Democratic candidate for the 2020 election Pete Buttigieg.  His running for office has invoked backlash from conservatives for his view of Christianity.  According to the article, he is a devoted Episcopalian, which is a branch of Christianity that is the middle way between Protestant and Roman Catholic doctrine.  They are both Catholic and reformed, but some tend to lean one way or another.  He also married his husband in Church which shows that he has a strong tie to faith.  Buttigieg has reframed the tension between civil rights and individual freedoms in religious terms.  He brings up issues about God, morality, sexuality, and intolerance and how they relate to liberal and conservative issues.  This ties into the class since Buttigieg uses his political platform to talk about religious issues and how they tie into it.  He believes that his being gay doesn't define whether he is religious or not and this, in turn, affects his political platform.  This shows how close religion and politics can be intertwined into each other.  Buttigieg has incited comments from the Vice President, Mike Pence, who is a devout evangelical Christian.  Pence has said that "he knows" Buttigieg and that he is not "critical of anyone else who has a different point of view" concerning his view of marriage.  This is different than his previous views for the LGBTQ community, where he has advocated for "conversion therapy" and has legislation that would make it easier for Christians to reject service to members of the LGBTQ community.  However, it seems now that he is silencing his viewpoint on the issue and when asked if being gay is a choice he remained silent.  The race for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 election is one that is drawing great interest and it is going to be interesting to see how this situation plays out and what the polls will say about this issue.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/us/politics/pete-buttigieg-sexuality-religion.html

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Sympathy for Israel deciding factors

In this article, which was written Gallup talks about how Israel, the United States politics and the Jewish voter base in America is all connected.  The article addresses how party lines and religion can play a strong role in the support or disapproval about Israel.  The article states that Democrats tend to have lower sympathy for Israel (although support for Israel still outweighs the support for Palestinians).  The reason that this might be is that Netanyahu has a strong connection with Republican leaders and Trump's support of Israel.  However, the article delves deeper into the issue and states that religiosity plays a stronger role in the support for Israel.  Gallup conducted a survey which asked, "In the Middle East, are your sympathies more with Israelis or more with the Palestinians?".  They found that highly religious Americans tend to sympathize with Israel and less with the Palestinians.  Religiosity was determined by how often they attended religious services. From 2019, data was collected where 71% of people who frequently attended religious services are sympathetic to Israel.  Also, Jews and Protestants still remain sympathetic to Israel.  Coincidentally, Jews are more likely to identify as Democrats rather than Republicans However, even the least religious Republicans are more positive about Israel than most religious Democrats.  This indicates that political identity is still the deciding factor in determining an opinion about some political issues.  This ties into the class since we have covered how Jews in America tend to be Democratic even though they would seem to be Republicans.  However, since Jews constitute a small fraction of voters in America, their voice is often drowned out by others.  Another interesting demographic that supports Israel is African Americans.  African Americans are mostly Protestant and are highly religious, which makes them seem like they would have higher than average sympathy to Israel, but since they are mostly Democratic they only have a 43% sympathy rating for Israel.  This shows that party identification can be the deciding factor in some political issues rather than religion.  Once again, we have learned in class that religion can be a strong deciding factor but as this article shows, sometimes party lines dominate on certain political issues.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/247937/americans-views-israel-remain-tied-religious-beliefs.aspx

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Evangelicals and Trump

The article written by the Washington post addresses the fact that in America people will vote along party lines even though their religious ideas do not necessarily match who they are voting for.  The article talks about the specific example of evangelicals voting for Trump.  Evangelicals do not seem to be a good fit for Trump since they hold strong Christian values which have shown to be debatable to exist for Trump.  Evangelicals tend to have strong values of religion they believe in the "being reborn experience".  However, later the article states that evangelical voters are less supportive of Trump than Republicans overall.  This is because some evangelical voters are democratic, even though their religious views seem to be so starkly different than their political views.  The article then says that among Republican evangelicals, approval of Trump is the same as nonevangelical Republicans.  This is similar to the patters as evangelical democrats and nonevangelical Democrats.  Trump even see stronger approval among evangelicals who identify as independents than nonevangelical independents.  The article says that this is due to strong partisanship, even in independents, since many independents tend to vote heavily for one party or another, even though their party name suggests otherwise.  Many independents are actually characterized by which way they "lean".  More independent evangelicals tend to lean towards the GOP.  The article then starts to talk about the statistics of the Republican party.  It says that a third of the Republican party identifies as evangelical.  Overall, this shows that party loyalty is a strong driver of political views rather than religious views or ideals.  The article cites other research done where it was determined that party identification is a better predictor of views on political values than any other factor.  So, in conclusion, Republicans and evangelicals are loyal to Trump because he has prioritized issues that are held dearly to the GOP such as appointing conservative judges to the Supreme Court.  

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/10/why-are-evangelical-americans-so-loyal-trump-because-theyre-heavily-republican/?utm_term=.762ebf0470b6

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Muslims in Congress

In this article from the Washington Post, it talks about the issue about Representative Ilhan Omar referring to 9/11 as some people doing something.  This prompted President Trump to tweet a video of the twin towers burning down and with the caption saying "WE WILL NEVER FORGET".  This was denounced by many Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said that the president overstepped and should not have used such imagery for a political attack.  This shows how politics overlaps with religion since Omar's original speech addresses that Muslims have been treated as second class citizens since that day and that they have always been wary ever since that day.  Especially in the era of Trump, the country has been polarized on opposite sides of party lines due to the President's rhetoric in communicating with his supporters.  Other politicians such as the Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke calls attention to the tweet in a town hall in Charleston, South Carolina.  He says that the President's actions should not drive people apart or make them afraid.  This situation is an example of how religion tends to dominate in both American politics and it is still a very driving force in why people act the way they do politically.  This also shows that religion and politics are both very polarizing topics in America.  The article also says that Omar has even received serious death threats a few weeks ago and someone has already been charged with a serious threat to Omar's life.  Once again this proves there is a serious correlation between politics and religion in America and this is an aspect of American politics that affect our life's today, even if it is not directly.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/13/president-trump-targets-rep-ilhan-omar-with-video-twin-towers-burning/?utm_term=.8c9d4ffeb775

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The State of “Nones” in America

According to an article by Religious News, the amount of "nones" (a group not affiliated with any religion) is statistically equivalent to the number of evangelicals in America with nones constituting 23.1% of the population and evangelicals making up 22.8% of the population.  These two groups are now tied with Catholics as the biggest religious/non-religious groups in America.  The article then talks about how this is not really represented in the United States accurately because of the low voter turnout of the nones and the high voter turnout of evangelicals.  This causes most of the policy to be passed in office to be more suited to that audience.  The reason why evangelicals turn out more at elections is that they are "white and old" as the article states.  This means that since they are old they are not preoccupied with jobs, unlike the none population is which is mostly young millennials.  It also has been proven in exit polls that white people vote the most out of all of the different demographics.  This can be due to them being in good socioeconomic standing, so they have more free time to go out and vote. As we have learned in class, evangelicals tend to vote conservatively on issues such as no abortion, anti-gay marriage, and other issues.  So even though the nones constitute the same amount of the population, they aren't necessarily represented equally in the government or in their policy.  We also discussed the voting patterns of nones in the government, which are to vote liberal on key issues like gay marriage and more government assistance such as universal healthcare and environmental protection.  The article then talks about how the decline in mainline protestants could be the cause of the increase of nones in the US.

Source: https://religionnews.com/2019/03/21/nones-now-as-big-as-evangelicals-catholics-in-the-us/