Editorial: God on the American campaign trail

January 27, 2008

The intensity of God-talk is already off the charts in this presidential campaign. We could all use some sensible restraint and some reflection on the history of the church-state debate, dating back to the nation's earliest days.

So far in this cycle, religion has been like a fugue: a subject that doesn't go away, but returns often in new forms.

To ease concerns about his Mormon beliefs, Mitt Romney gives a speech that tries to emulate John F. Kennedy's 1960 attempt to assure Protestant ministers that the pope would not run the nation.

A nasty e-mailed slur draws dark conclusions from Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, and from his childhood schooling. He's a Muslim, the e-mails argue, and we can't really trust him. Actually, he's a Christian, but even if he were a Muslim, that should have zero bearing on this election - any more than Romney's faith should.

Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former governor, raises eyebrows with the style and the symbolism of his Christmas-themed ad and his promise to amend the Constitution to bring it into conformity with God's laws. But he also makes good points about the care for the poor that permeates Scripture.

In this atmosphere, a group of Catholic, evangelical and mainline Protestant scholars and pastors have issued a helpful statement called "Keeping Faith: Principles to Protect Religion on the Campaign Trail." Its three main principles make good sense:

1. "No person should be expected to leave their faith at the door when operating in the public square. But it is inappropriate to use religious or doctrinal differences to marginalize or disparage candidates, by either comparison or assertion. No religious test may be applied to candidates for public office - not by the law, not by candidates, not by campaigns."

2. "Candidates for public office should welcome the contributions that religion brings to society. But just as government may not endorse or favor a religious faith, candidates for public office are obliged, in their official capacity, to acknowledge that no faith can lay exclusive claim to the moral values that enrich our public life."

3. "Just as government policies must be in service to the nation and not to any religious faith, the same holds true for candidates' positions on policies. While it is appropriate for candidates to connect their faith to their policy positions, their positions on policy must respect all citizens regardless of religious belief."

The statement also says: "Religion forms virtues vital to democratic citizenship. Religion calls citizens to transcend self-interest in service to others - to those in need, to neighbor, to community, to country and to the world. Religion promotes fundamental moral values necessary for civilized public life - honor and honesty, charity and justice."

The republic's founding generation saw it that way, too. George Washington ad-libbed "so help me God" at the end of his inaugural oath, and he argued that "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle," Jon Meacham reports in his book, "American Gospel."

But the founders saw a need for a way of talking about God, a public religion, that would unify the nation, not divide it. And they chose not to use specifically Christian language in writing our founding documents.

Though the earliest European settlers were Christian, and Christians are now the majority, the founders and subsequent leaders have rejected any attempt to declare this officially a Christian nation. In fact, a 1797 U.S. treaty with the Muslim nation of Tripoli said clearly that "the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."

This is an old debate in our republic, and it will last as long as the nation does. What we owe to each other in this campaign season, as always, is a decent respect for the civic virtues that we derive from our faith - or even from our lack of faith - and a refusal to pose any religious barriers to those who seek the highest office in the land.