Deputy Greer, a walk-on minor character in an episode of the X-Files said it best: "all the nuts roll down to Florida." But come election time, they charter buses, hire staffers, declare their candidacy for higher office and begin rolling from one primary hot spot to the next. Debates among the prospective candidates were once focused on the big, pressing questions: unemployment, war, inflation, the economy--issues that directly impact where and how Americans live, work and pursue those things that bring us happiness. These days, however, candidate debates have become the strident opening salvo of a mudslinging contest that now alarmingly includes religion.
When did religion become so entrenched within the voting booth? It didn't belong there when Americans dithered over President Kennedy's Roman Catholicism and it doesn't belong there now. One's choice of faith is highly personal and completely individual. There is a separation of church and state for a very simple reason: it upholds the right of the individual. Our society is a melting pot that strips all of us of our preexisting cultural identities. Africans, Asians, Europeans--we're all transformed into Americans through the legal conveyance of citizenship. Thanks to the separation of church and state, our religion is not subjected to the same process. Instead, it's kept out of the melting pot and, like voting, recognized as a personal, private choice.
It seems to me that candidates who flaunt their religion are under the mistaken impression that embracing the "right" religion will convey popularity. Many of them also believe this is a "Christian" country without bothering to dig any deeper and define what kind of Christianity we practice. Are we Catholics, Protestants, Anabaptists, Adventists, Campbellites, Lutherans, Apostolics, Mennonites or Episcopaleans? The fact is, we're all of those things; we're also Muslim, Hindu, Ba'hai, Buddhist and more. Formally combining religion with politics stands to deepen the divisions between these schools of religious thought and inflame our political process with religious zeal--the one thing it patently does not need. If you doubt that, take a quick look at the histories of Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Lebanon. Each case shows that blending religion and politics is a recipe for disaster.
We should not evaluate any candidate--be he Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry or Mitt Romney--on the basis of his faith or how well we think he practices that faith. Nor should any candidate cloak themselves in religion and present themselves for ordination. Doing so sets a dangerous precedent for institutionalizing religion and robs each of us of our most fundamental right as Americans. The right to choose.
