The McNulty Memo (Monthly Musings on Faith and Public Life)
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles looking at Christian faith in the public square. This is part of the Institute’s Center for Faith & Public Life initiative.
Is religion becoming more influential in American life? According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, How Americans Feel About Religion’s Influence in Government and Public Life, the answer is plainly yes. While only 37% of those surveyed hold this view, it’s an astounding 19% increase over the past two years and the highest level in nearly 25 years.
Especially noteworthy is the strong expression of support for the role of faith in public life. The majority (55%) of the survey participants think a growing religious influence is a good thing. This number includes those who see an increase and are happy about it and those who don’t and say it’s a bad thing. Surprisingly, 60% favor either an adherence to Christian moral values in American political governance (43%) or the designation of Christianity as the country’s official religion (17%). In other words, a solid majority of Americans want biblical morality to serve as the north star in the formation of public policy.
In the late 1970s, the Reverend Jerry Falwell famously identified what was then a rising Christian conservative movement as the “moral majority” and used that term in launching a powerful political organization. It played a significant role in Ronald Reagan’s successful run for president. Working with a broad coalition of conservative allies, the Moral Majority galvanized public alarm over America’s deteriorating moral condition. The success of this movement was helped by the fact that the behavioral excesses of the ‘60s and ‘70s had not substantially altered the existing cultural consensus that supported traditional family values, smaller government, and capitalism over collectivist economic systems. The Moral Majority closed its doors by the end of the 1980s. Nevertheless, the Christian conservative voice continued to resonate with voters though with declining effect.
Many Americans evidently continue to be alarmed by the moral climate in public life, and yet, the larger cultural consensus of half a century ago is not the same. The maddening situation with Graham Platner, the leading candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from the state of Maine, is the latest example. A Nazi chest tattoo (and obvious dishonesty about it), allegations of sexual violence, adulterous texts, and a raft of profane and highly offensive videos and online posts have done virtually nothing to undermine his support from Democratic party leaders. These are the same people who proclaimed moral indignation over Justice Kavanaugh’s high school behavior in his confirmation process and insisted that “we must believe survivors, not bully them (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse).” Political strategist James Carville even compares his support for Platner to the U.S. allying with Joseph Stalin, a genocidal dictator, in WWII. What would have certainly knocked Platner out of the race in 1980 is now easily accepted as a form of “authenticity.”
Platner contends that the revelations about his deplorable past behavior are being “weaponized” against him. In other words, rather than seeing this information as relevant to the quality of his character for public service, expressions of concern are merely political attacks. I’m old enough to remember a time when the existing moral consensus rejected allegations of political motivation as an excuse for serious misbehavior. Sadly, public morality is becoming a partisan issue.
The Pew researchers offer some interesting data on this point. They assert, “Republicans are considerably more likely than Democrats to say religion has a positive influence on American life and to support religion having a prominent role in government and lawmaking.” Indeed, twice the number of Republicans and Independents who lean Republican (75%) hold a positive view on religious influence compared to Democrats and Independents who lean that way (38%). And given that the cultural elites, those who dominate the media, entertainment, academia, and other sectors of public life are largely aligned with the Democratic party and its progressive values, those of us in the Pew majority feel increasingly isolated and stigmatized. Christian values are routinely portrayed in popular culture and educational circles in a negative light. People of faith are left to mistakenly feel like a declining minority.
It shouldn’t be this way. The widespread presence of Christianity in America and the essential interconnection between faith and freedom were among Alexis de Tocqueville’s key observations about the young nation in the 1830s. In his Democracy in America subchapter entitled “Of Religion Considered as a Political Institution, How It Serves Powerfully to Maintain the Democratic Republic among the Americans,” Tocqueville notes, “Who could deny the fortunate influence of religion on mores and the influence of mores on the government of society.” He also writes, “From the onset, politics and religion found themselves in accord, and they have not ceased to be so since.”
As we approach the 250 celebration, America’s best hope lies in the reinvigoration of the moral consensus that necessarily follows from religious influence in public life. The partisan divide must not be a moral divide. In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders anchored their justification for liberty in the abiding moral truths established by our Creator. Americans may differ on how best to address problems such as immigration, healthcare, and evil in the world, but a shared standard of decency is what has held us together.