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Faith and Fury in the American Political Arena
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11640 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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9 / 1986 |
2,228 Words |
| Author
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Kenneth A. Myers
Kenneth A. Myers is editor of This World: A Journal of
Religion and Public Life and author of a forthcoming book
titled Common Grace, Common Ground: Notes for a Christian
Public Philosophy. |
To many observers, the 1984 presidential election campaign was something of a shock. The campaign debates were filled with talk about supply-side economics, arms control, or rebuilding America 's decaying infrastructure. But the issue that really ignited passions was the debate over the relationship of religion and politics.
Abortion was the material cause for much of the hoopla. Walter Mondale's choice of Geraldine Ferraro as a running mate, a move designed in part to woo the votes of women, backfired as a number of women (and men) of a more conservative and traditional stripe focused attention away from Ferraro's gender and toward her ecclesiastical affiliation. How, they asked, could a good Catholic support legislation and court decisions that permitted and even encouraged abortions?
This particular battle escalated when John Cardinal O'Connor of New York City and New York Governor Mario Cuomo entered the fray by issuing public statements about what it meant to be a Catholic and an American. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, generally perceived to be to the left of center, announced that it had problems with the "personally opposed but" position espoused by Cuomo and Ferraro.
America had come a long way from the year it elected its first Catholic president. In 1960, John F. Kennedy announced that he would not let his identity as a Catholic affect his performance as American president. Kennedy called himself a "secular Catholic," and virtually everyone breathed easier. In 1984 the crowds (at least some of them) hollered that they couldn't tolerate a potential vice president (and hence potential president) who ignored Catholic teaching in forming public policy.
Meanwhile, on the Protestant side of the tracks, a number of players were equally active. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who ran his own campaign, and Rev. Jerry Falwell, serving the interests of the incumbent, Ronald Reagan, took positions in opposite corners of the political ring, and, gloves flailing, proceeded to champion opposing positions on just about every issue imaginable; both Baptist ministers appealed to fundamental moral and religious values.
And the leading contenders for the White House were not left out. President Reagan returned to religious themes repeatedly, and House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill primly noted that Reagan was not exactly an avid churchgoer. Walter Mondale, who charged the president with undermining the wall between church and state
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