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Religious Politics or Political Religion?
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19046 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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1 / 1991 |
1,806 Words |
| Author
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Robert L. Spaeth
Robert L. Spaeth is professor of liberal studies and
codirector of the Christian Humanism project at St. John's
University, Collegeville, Minnesota. He is coauthor (with R.W.
Franklin) of Virgil Michel: American Catholic (Liturgical
Press, 1988) and the author of Exhortations on Liberal
Education: A Dean Speaks His Mind (St. John's University,
1988); The Church and a Catholic's Conscience (Harper & Row,
1985) and No Easy Answers: Christians Debate Nuclear Arms
(Harper and Row, 1983). |
UNDER GOD
Religion and American Politics
Gary Willis
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990
445 pp., $24.95
Garry Wills' latest book on the motive forces of American politics has been mistitled. Rather than Under God, it should be called God Help Us! The subtitle needs changing as well; instead of the bland Religion and American Politics, something, like How the Power of Religion Shapes American Politics would be better. Why make these changes? Because the contents of this informative book are more provocative than informative.
During 1988 Wills, on leave from his faculty position at Northwestern University, reported on the presidential campaign for Time and the PBS program Frontline. Although the primaries of 1988 seem ancient now, we need to recall that they featured not only George Bush and Michael Dukakis but also the likes of Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Robertson; they also reflected the continuing growth and influence of the abortion issue. What these figures and causes have in common is religion--in some cases religious peculiarities, in others religious fervor, and in all the use (or exploitation) of religions for political purposes.
For Wills, the perceptive historian and analyst of American culture, religious politics is raw meat: The moment and the author had met. The resulting book might upset some readers and should convince most that America is religiously strange as well as genuinely religious. For all their devotion to keeping the church out of the state, Americans enjoy the constant incursions of church into state and are capable of producing an endless supply of inspired believers whose visions of salvation lead them inevitably into politics.
An example is Gary Hart, whose star rose and fell early in the 1988 political season. There is no theology of philandering, it would seem, but Hart came to public life from a strong religious background, a member of a sect that believes in achieving perfection on earth. Deep down, Hart's political ambitions were actually moral ambitions. Thus his fall had unusual import.
Wills traveled to Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma City, where Hart studied and acquired his idealism. A fellow student later recalled that Hart's goal was not to be president but "Philosopher King." From Bethany Hart
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