It seems that within these videos there remains an underlying fear that a politician who speaks as a person of faith and a follower of a particular religion immediately calls into question their ability to lead a religiously diverse nation (which also includes non-religious people). In the first video, one of the speakers specifically mentions her fear of religious discrimination and abuse of power. Another speaker says, "As a Baptist Preacher, Huckabee would obviously represent the Christian faith. But again, the bigger question is, would he make a good President? Because a President represents all Americans."
This sounds like exactly the kind of fear that JFK was trying to assuage in his 1960 speech. Now, I can understand the fear of discrimination stated by the Islamic woman, as we cannot deny that after 9/11 there were some pretty horrible practices of discrimination against followers of the Islamic faith (and people who looked Islamic, had Islamic names, etc.). However, I think some of this fear also comes from a misunderstanding of what it means to practice the Christian faith. As Yoder put it, to imitate Christ is to imitate his social and political instructions. In other words, to call oneself a Christian, one must be willing to love as Christ loved, to live as Christ lived, and to suffer as Christ suffered. Thus, to live out the Christian faith in the world is to be engaged in our social and political world. It is not about creating a Christian government in the sense that it would discriminate against non-believers. Rather, it is a focus on servant-leadership, on loving all of our neighbors, and seeking justice for all.
The rhetoric used in the second video downplays and mocks the focus on religion and faith during this election. It juxtaposes questions about the Bible with questions about the Constitution, as if the two documents are mutually exclusive and in battle. Or as if a person who believes in and reads the bible somehow has nothing to say about the Constitution. I personally found the video annoying in its oversimplification of the issue of faith and politics. While I do agree that some of the questions seem silly and inappropriate (what's the biggest sin you've ever committed?!?), at least we're finally talking about religion and politics. I completely agree with Joe Lieberman's preface to Richard Land's book as quoted in the first video:
"To try to demand that Americans divorce their deeply held faith convictions from their public policy views is both an unnatural and unnecessary act."
I would also like to think that by encouraging a humble and well-discerned approach to politics, that faithful people can make our country a better country. And it's not about injecting our faith into politics...it's about living our faith, which calls us to become politically engaged.
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