Religion and the Swing Vote

Transcript

E.J. DIONNE: The title of my book can be read in two ways. It speaks to our country's exhaustion with a religious style in politics that was excessively dogmatic, partisan, and ideological. It is a style that reflected a spirit far too certain of itself and far too insistent on the depravity of its political adversaries.Linking religion too closely to the fortunes of one political party or to one leader or group of leaders is always a mistake. It encourages alienation for faith itself; where, after all, did Voltaire come from, by turning a concern with the ultimate into a prop for temporal power.It distorts great traditions by requiring their exponents to bob and weave in order to accommodate the political needs of a given moment or the immediate requirements of a given politician. Thus, do great traditions drain themselves of their critical capacity? I do not for a moment pretend that this tendency is unique to political conservatives. But for more than a quarter century, it is the political right that is used and I believe abused religion. A great many people, including a great many religious people have had enough. They have had enough for the other reason embodied in my title. Reducing religion to politics or to a narrow set of public issues amounts to a great sell out of our traditions.

It is common to speak of religion as selling out to secularism or to modernity or to a fashionable relativism. But there is a more immediate danger, particularly in the United States, of religion selling out to political forces that use the votes of religious people for purposes having nothing to do with a religious agenda, and often enough for causes that may contradict the very values such voters prize most.It is a great sell out of religion to insist that it has much to teach us about abortion or gay marriage, but little useful to say about social justice, war and peace, the organization of our work lives, the death penalty, immigration, or our approach in providing for the old, the sick, and the desperate. Religion becomes less relevant to public life when its role is marginalized to a pre-determined set of values issues, when its voice is silenced or softened on the central problems facing our country and our government.

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