For decades, religion has been used to separate people along partisan lines. Since the 1980s, white evangelicals have largely supported Republicans as a sign of identity, often at odds with abortion and LGBT rights, with Donald Trump winning
a higher percentage of their votes in 2016. It was even more than George W. Bush, a de facto evangelical whose faith was central to his identity, won in his two presidential election.
Whether you agree with his policy or not, Biden is undoubtedly a man of faith who attends church regularly and
menda he carries a rosary in his pocket. In his post-election victory speech, he quoted the Catholic hymn, in his address St. Augustine.
In addition, Democrats now have Officer Raphael Warnock, who serves in the U.S. Senate from Georgia, making it perhaps only slightly more difficult to present his party than ungodly pagans – or “secular humanists,” as the case may be.
Pope Francis is also a symbol of a relatively liberal Christian tradition,
in contrast to many conservative traditionalists in his church.
And so it is noticeable that in recent weeks, evangelical leaders have met with Biden in the White House and
made an example based on faith to grant a tax credit to a child as part of his budget.
It is a reminder that so much biblical wisdom is based on caring for the poor and needy and is not just focused on socially conservative constraints.
It is a glimpse of an advanced Christian tradition overshadowed by the rise of the religious right. But in the 1960s, religious leaders from prev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
marched together for civil rights. And in the 1970s Jimmy Carter
gathered believers to become the first newborn evangelical president of the modern age.
But starting with Baptist Secretary Jerry Falwell
The moral majority Evangelicals gathered around Ronald Reagan in 1980 and became a strong conservative electoral bloc made up of
as much as a quarter of the entire electorate.
And while Biden did
modest profits with religious voters in 2020,
Pew research in May, she found that Biden’s ratings of approval among religious groups were a mirror image of Trump – with the highest support among black Protestants and the lowest among white evangelicals. Interestingly, Christians in general are twice as likely to say they are
he liked the way Biden behaved in the presidency compared to Trump.
It is safe to say that we are still a long way from overcoming our religious-political divisions.
Biden’s meeting with Francis came as a handful of Catholic bishops in the United States
they called for Biden to renounce communion for his position in support of abortion, despite Pope Francis ’statement that
policy should not guide these decisions.
The blurring of religion and politics can lead to a rift in the family, as Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois found,
family members condemned him because he went against “Christian principles” and joined the “devil’s army” after calling for Trump’s removal and refusing to support the big lie after the January 6 Capitol riots.
But who counts?
The bigger issue – and opportunity – is the depolarization of religious associations with one political party. There should be competitive visions of how to use religion in public policy offered with moral humility. And if a progressive vision of Christianity emerges as a counterweight to the religious right, it can elevate our debates and help us reunite as a nation in commitment to the common good.
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