Faith and Politics on the Right

While I was searching Sunday night for newsworthy material to consider in today's post I saw that Google News had picked up piece from GetReligion.org, one of the blogs I link to here.  GetReligion's piece was a commentary on a story regarding the death of Fr. Neuhaus, which was featured in the God & Country blog at U.S. News & World Report. 

… Neuhaus’s death … reminds us that Catholics remain the brains of a conservative movement built on evangelical brawn. This played out during the Bush years in Supreme Court nominations. John Roberts, Bush’s first Supreme Court appointment, was embraced by conservative evangelicals, largely because his Catholicism assured them that he was a pro-lifer at heart, despite his thin judicial record.

Bush’s second nomination, Harriet Miers, was initially backed by evangelicals because of her evangelical Christian faith, but nearly every other constituency on the right, including many conservative Catholics, rejected her as an intellectual lightweight. Many conservative Catholics were appalled at the way conservative evangelical leaders like Focus on the Family’s James Dobson appeared to rely on her faith background as the sole basis for their support. The moment threw a light on the split between the social conservative movement’s Catholic head and evangelical heart.

The writer at GetReligion asks, "So, basically, Catholics are smart and evangelicals are, well, not as smart. Is that the point?"  He goes on to point out that in his estimation Reformed Protestants and evangelicals appear to be spending more time getting acquainted with their ancient roots in Catholic thought.

Undeniably conservative commentators like Fr. Neuhaus and the recently deceased Deacon Paul Weyrich have provided the religious right with a tone of intellect as opposed the raw passion of evangelical heart.  However, from the viewpoint of one watching news as it habitually combines faith with politics, it seems that the right is too often the only point of view given any weight in considering matters politically moral importance.

If Reformed Protestants are spending more time getting better acquainted with their roots in natural theology and Catholic thought, and I believe they are, it doesn't necessarily stand to reason that their intellectual efforts will land them on the right politically--in fact, my experience has often been that the opposite is true, especially among mainline Protestants.  However, I will allow that evangelicalism--if taken to be more or less synonymous with Christian fundamentalism--can be a predictor one's inclination to identify faith with the causes of the religious right.  Unarguably we saw this in the last election.

While political causes over the past 40 years or better have brought about a unique relationship between Catholics and evangelical Protestants, I don't particularly see evangelicals outside of academic circles considering that they hold much in common with Catholicism other than with the politics of Catholics on the right.  This brings me my point, namely, that political persuasion, either left or right, cannot be taken as the litmus test of faith when considered in the context of the public sphere.  Nor can faith (in the sense of sect) be taken as necessarily identifying one's political temperament.

Perhaps it was the historical intellectual heritage of Catholicism in general that rejected the economic liberalism of the neoconservative movement, or perhaps that rejected the current situation of involvement in an unjustifiable war.  Too often I have seen Catholics and evangelicals who, on a simplistic level, allow the politics of the right to define the shape of their faith.  A true intellectual climate in dialogue between Catholics and evangelicals will be such that politics will play only a minor role because in reality politics--even something as clearly and undeniably important as the politics of abortion--cannot be the sole source of our self-identity.

Perhaps in the sphere of the politics of the religious right certain Catholics have taken a decisively intellectual role while evangelicals have been the foot soldiers.  However, with the challenges of the coming era we stand to learn something important, especially in creating a culture of life that demands an end to abortion, armed conflict, and a fundamental option for the poor: we must transcend identifying our moral values with our political orientation.  Both evangelical Protestants and Catholics must come together at a level deeper and more meaningful than mere political ideology.

Comments

[James]

Catholics must transform Democrats!

[Deacon DW]

James, I believe that can happen though it's hard to imagine any political party being completely compatible with the faith.