Being president, vice president, senator, governor (or even small-town mayor) involves certain tasks, but none of them is religious in nature.
Yesterday I received a call from an Associated Press reporter in Anchorage who wanted to talk about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s use of religious rhetoric.
A video surfaced recently of Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, giving a speech to a group of ministry students at her former church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. During the talk, Palin said the war in Iraq reflects God’s will – but she didn’t stop there. Apparently, God’s will also includes the building of a natural gas pipeline in the state.
“I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded,” Palin said. “But really all of that stuff doesn’t do any good if the people of Alaska’s heart isn’t right with God.”
I told the AP, “I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches. The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God.”
The story went out over the national wires, which prompted one reader to e-mail me this morning. He asked, “Since when is mentioning God, or prayer, or faith not the privilege of any person regardless of their position in this life? This is an American freedom. This was no attempt at ascendency to a religion by the government, it was a person expressing their personal opinion freely, as we all have the right to do. If that offends you and your movement, I suggest your efforts should be directed more to the removal of the ‘Freedom of Speech’ from our Constitution. For that is what you are really trying to do.”
I would ask my critic to go back and read the AP story again. I did not say that Palin and other politicians have no right to talk about God or religion. Indeed they do. My question is whether they should do it so much and whether such rhetoric is helpful and appropriate in a pluralistic democracy that separates religion and government.
There has been a lot of “God talk” this election season, and Americans United has been critical of it on both sides of the political aisle. The reason is simple: Being president, vice president, senator, governor (or even small-town mayor) involves certain tasks, but none of them is religious in nature. The president oversees the national budget, serves as commander in chief and manages international relations, among other things. Governors draw up state budgets and work with their legislatures. A mayor makes sure the police and fire departments are adequately funded and deals with zoning issues.
Calling people to God (or determining if they need to be so summoned) is the job of the clergy. When members of the clergy urge us to do certain things, we are free to respond as we like. We can follow them or ignore them as we see fit. This is not the Middle Ages, and clerics no longer have coercive power to compel conformity.
It’s different when a political leader calls us to God. The president, vice president, governor and mayor are public servants. They represent everyone in the nation, state and community. As citizens of this country, we have certain duties – but none of them involves religion. We can worship, or not, as we see fit. What we decide to do in that realm is personal and none of the business of politicians.
Furthermore, we are diverse. Religious conservatives often behave as if there is a generic concept of “God” that is accepted by all. In fact, fundamentalists have historically been quick to attack those who do not worship or believe as they do, labeling such people heretics or not true believers.
A Muslim who worships Allah, a Hindu who believes in a God that manifests itself in many ways and a Unitarian who perceives God as an impersonal force of goodness that moves through all people can sit in a house of worship with like-minded believers and feel that their heart is right with God. I know a lot of TV preachers and their followers who would argue differently. (And don’t get me started on how those folks react to non-believers.)
Who is to say when we are “right with God”? Some fundamentalists are certain that non-Christians, liberal Christians, agnostics and so on can never be “right with God.” They have the right to believe that, but when government officials imply that they have the power to apply such a standard, it’s time to get nervous.
In short, I don’t want the president, governor or mayor worrying about the state of my soul and whether my neighbors and I are “right with God.” He or she would do better building the economy, creating jobs and filling potholes. We have great religious freedom in this nation. If any American feels that his or her soul needs a tune-up, there is no shortage of religious leaders willing to help out with that.
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