Right Faith, Wrong Religion

With the demise of Rick Santorum’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, the focus has shifted to Mitt Romney. In Romney the Republican faithful are challenged. As is well known, the candidate is Mormon. For the religious rightwing of the party this is almost as bad as being Muslim, something the most ardent radicals accuse Barack Obama of being, despite solid evidence to the contrary.

The Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism) was founded by an American, Joseph Smith, in the 1820s and has been characterized as a form of Christian primitivism. Bruce McConkie, a general authority of the LDS Church, has said that “Mormonism is indistinguishable from Christianity.” However, it was not a mainstream Protestant movement from the beginning. The magical discovery of new biblical texts, such as the Book of Mormon, and early practice of polygamy set it apart from mainline Christian orthodoxy, whether Catholic or Protestant. In fact, Mormonism usually is seen as a type of cult by Christian traditionalists (such as the fundamentalists who largely populate the Republican right).

Mormons are lumped into a kind of limbo reminiscent of Dante—literally on the edge of Hell. Consequently, the far-right faithful see themselves as damned if they do support Romney—right faith, wrong religion—and damned if they don’t, because that will give the election away to Obama.

If we think of faith as a general belief orientation—one of many possible definitions—and regard religion as a specific expression of faith, then all American presidents have identified with the Christian faith. Even those who haven’t been affiliated with a specific religious denomination have held beliefs that were Christian in orientation. For example, among those without specific affiliation, Thomas Jefferson was raised Anglican but his mature beliefs were closer to Unitarian, though he died shortly before the establishment of institutionalized Unitarianism. Abraham Lincoln likely was a Deist, neither particularly Christian nor non-Christian, though he occasionally attended Presbyterian services and often read the Bible and quoted from it. Barack Obama is currently unaffiliated, following his resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ over the Jeremiah Wright controversy, but he was previously affiliated with the UCC for more than twenty years.

Twelve U.S. presidents have been Episcopalian, the most populous religious category. They’ve ranged from George Washington to George W. Bush (though he converted to Methodism later in life). John F. Kennedy, famously, was the only Catholic. Most have adhered to some form of Protestantism.

Ardent religionists cherry-pick the Bible, selecting and interpreting its passages to suit their personal or political ideologies. Politicians do the same with the Constitution. Those who have read the U.S. Constitution will have noted the passage saying that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The wisdom of this ideal is self-evident, as is the wisdom of separating church and state so that our democratic governance is not parochialized. But actualization of any ideal is never easy. Too many biases, preconceptions, egos, and ideologies are at stake.

Will we ever have another Catholic president? A Jew? A Muslim? Or perhaps even a Mormon?