In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, Garry Wills writes that: "There is no such thing as a 'Christian politics.'" He then reminds us what Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here."
Wills says this is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when "some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not."
Wills piece came in the same week that Senator John Kerry (who is a Catholic) told a political conference in New York organized by Rev. Al Sharpton that he believed "deeply in my faith" and that the Koran, the Torah, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles have influenced his social conscience that he exercised in politics. "I will tell you, nowhere in there, nowhere, not in one page, not in one phrase uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ, can you find anything that suggests that there is a virtue in cutting children from Medicare and taking money and giving it to the rich," Senator Kerry said.
All of this enriches the conversation more Americans appear to be having about religion and politics. As one of the most distinguished historians in North America, Garry Wills raises some critical points when he writes that the norms of justice will fall short of the demands of love that Jesus imposes. "A Christian may adopt just political measures from his or her own motive of love," he writes, "but that is not the argument that will define justice for state purposes."
But some argue that appealing to Americans just on the grounds of justice isn't very effective. In his new book A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan Michael Kazin writes that: "The obvious problem for liberals is that most Americans don't share their mistrust of public piety. Time and again, secular reformers defeat themselves by assuming that this difference doesn't matter, that they can appeal solely to the economic self-interest of working-class Americans and ignore moral issues grounded in religious conviction. But more than 80 percent of Americans believe in a God and an afterlife."
Earlier this year Kazin argued in a Dissent magazine article that in "the fight to revive the self-confidence and sharpen the purpose of the American left, one needs to talk about the world in unapologetically moral terms." He added that: "Today, we need a moral equivalent of conservative religiosity, one that can inspire both believers and non-believers on the left to do the kind of determined, often self-sacrificing work that the right receives from its adherents, in and out of presidential elections."
In his op-ed piece, Wills cites one example of where the intermingling of politics and religion produce bizarre results. He recalls Lt. Gen. William Boykin saying repeatedly that God made George Bush president in 2000, when a majority of Americans did not vote for him.
But Kazin is writing about something many liberal Democrats still can't fully comprehend: That their policy prescriptions are still perceived by many as building an impersonal state that doesn't reflect American values. Whoever the Democrats nominate for President in 2008 they will need to come to terms with this perception or risk losing again.
Garry Wills writes that: "The institutional Jesus of the Republicans has no similarity to the Gospel figure. Neither will any institutional Jesus of the Democrats." He's right. But what will stir the hearts and minds of Americans to address the growing gap between rich and poor, child poverty, and unjust immigration laws? The answers are not simple. But one thing is clear: Any Democrat seeking the White House in 2008 must speak in a way that touches the deepest part of Americans.
Gerry McCarthy is Editor of The Social Edge.
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