Week 1: Faith and Politics?

Most Americans, including most American Christians, have a sense that religion and politics don't mix. For American Catholics, this line was pretty clearly drawn one morning in Texas.

JFK speaking in Houston on Sept 12, 1960



The Democratic nominee says, among other things, "I believe in an America where the separation of Church and State is absolute." This includes the Pope and bishops not telling Catholics how to vote or how to lead. The same, of course, goes for Protestant ministers, who shouldn't tell their congregations how to vote (or lead, one would presume).

Does that include this guy?



Martin Luther King never held a political office, but there can be little doubt that he was political. First and foremost, however, he was a pastor. Clearly, he felt that the Gospel demanded a certain response from Christians to the striking sanitation workers, and to people whose civil rights were being denied for racial or other reasons. Should faith and politics be allowed to mix like this?

We are embarking on a project in which we will be trying to think through the proper relationship between faith and politics. We do so particularly in the context of the Catholic tradition and in the context of the United States. We do so--with all due respect to President Kennedy--in keeping with the guidance of our bishops, in their document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship."

The idea that we can separate issues into neat, distinct categories, such as moral, political, economic, religious, is an illusion. We will be exploring the issues at the intersection of faith and politics.

By the way, it is no accident that I have chosen the clips above. The two gentlemen in question are, of course, powerful and interesting figures in their own right, relevant almost 50 years later regardless. But, these guys, believe it or not, are in this week's political news. Caroline Kennedy has anointed Barak Obama her dad's successor. And Hillary Clinton, speaking at a Baptist church in Memphis the day after losing South Carolina (especially the African-American vote) to Obama, has invoked quite strongly the legacy of Dr. King.

In fact, I can't resist quoting just a bit of her speech directly here, because she is right about this and it's so relevant:

The cause for justice has always come from people of faith and people of labor. Here in this great hall today, you understand, as Dr. King did, that your cause was his cause. His movement was a broad and deep one. It was a movement to redeem the soul of America; to fulfill the common purpose of our nation. A movement inspired by the idea, as he put it, that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," and that included economic justice.

The injustice of poverty; the injustice of people who work hard all day and then on the night shift, and it is still not enough. The injustice of being invisible in a country of so much wealth and opportunity.... That invisibility eats away at the heart and soul of America. There should not be any invisible Americans and if it’s up to the faith community and the labor community and political leaders like those of us here today, there will not be invisible workers anywhere, ever again.

Hillary Clinton--far from the obvious "religious" candidate among the front-runners for either party--is calling for partnerships of faith and labor and politics for something that sounds very like what the popes and the bishops have called "the preferential option for the poor." She is also not the only candidate trying to claim the legacy of MLK, or speaking to the intersection of faith and politics.

That intersection will be our focus for our journey together.