Tag: religious freedom

Joe Biden Is Not Going To Close Your Church

There’s this persistent fear on the Right that liberal Democrats are always just moments away from somehow banning prayer/church/Christianity. Its a refrain we hear often from conservative Christian politicians during election campaigns, that their opponents want to criminalize prayer, or ban the practice of Christianity, or some other over the top, completely false insanity about the supposed death of religious freedom in America at the hands of the godless Left.

Joe Biden restricting religious freedom attending St. Michael’s Catholic Church on Inauguration Day.

This rhetoric has, predictably, heated up quite a bit since Joe Biden was elected President. Amongst the very irresponsible and inflammatory things conservative thought leaders have been pitching to their base in an attempt to stoke panic and fear is the idea that Joe Biden – a devout, church going Catholic, a man whose experience of faith far outstrips that of his predecessor – is going to sign an executive order greatly restricting religious freedom, especially that of conservative and evangelical Christians.

Of course, the Covid-19 public health measures being implemented don’t help tamp down this fearmongering, as many states around the country have made the common sense decision to restrict large gatherings, which of course includes church gatherings. I certainly have complicated feelings about the state putting restrictions on religious gatherings, even in the face of a global pandemic. But, nevertheless, I have never once interpreted the closing of churches in order to combat Covid-19 as some kind of specific attack on my religion. But I apparently am in the minority among my co-religionists, at least here in the more conservative parts of the country, where these public health measures are viewed as tantamount to Nero’s purge of Rome or Soviet destruction of churches. Historical context is in short supply amongst these folks, not to mention any sense of perspective.

Over the The Way of Improvement Leads Home, John Fea highlights what he is calling the “evangelical lost cause” movement among Trump’s former Court Evangelicals. Dr. Fea takes one for the team, and watches the video of Liberty University propagandist Charlie Kirk’s visit to Jack Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California. Check out his post for a blow-by-blow account of this farcical church proceeding.

Of course, one of the key talking points for Kirk and Hibbs was the alleged impending doom of Christianity in America at the hands of the Biden-Harris administration. Fea summarizes:

At around the 18:00 mark, Hibbs implies that those churches that have not stayed open during COVID-19 or failed to “stand” with Trump during the election will “not get a chance to stand again” in 2021. Notice how Hibbs connects the ability of the church to “stand” with those in political power. He then moves into evangelical fearmongering mode by suggesting that the “powers-that-be” want to shut down churches and are “sharpening their swords as we speak. He adds:

If you [are a church] that didn’t make the cross over into the new year standing, I don’t know if you are going to get a chance to stand again…I want to put a cry out to churches: you really need to open-up now because there is a high probability that you may never be granted the freedom to do that from the government again, and if you are waiting for permission from the government to open-up again I don’t think it is going to come from this administration.

I share all this because I want to do my part, as both a devout Christian, and as a member of the political left – and also as somebody who voted for Joe Biden, and has previously worked for the Democratic Party in several capacities – to help bring light to the intentions of Democrats and the Left in regard to religious freedom, and especially conservative forms of Christianity. So here it is:

Joe Biden, Democrats, and the Left are not going to close down your church.

No one is going to ban prayer.

No one is going to restrict your ability to practice your faith as you see fit.

No one is interested in oppressing your religious freedom.

Again, no one is shutting down your church.

I feel like these things shouldn’t have to be said. These are the kinds of things that generally have been taken for granted in our democracy. But, as with so many elements of our politics and communal life together, extremist claims and fear mongering on the political Right have whipped up a frenzy of panic, and caused many level headed people to think that a cabal of Democrats, liberals, academics, media members, minorities, and other Americans are intent of destroying the country, tearing up the Constitution, killing Christians, and otherwise insane, non-sensical things.

There are certainly extremists out there on the left who take a very poor and very militant view of religious practice in this country. There always has been. But, the key is, most of those folks are outside the mainstream of leftist political thought and practice in America.

On the legal front, the opposition to school-sponsored prayer and Bible study is not an extremist view. This is the general legal and social consensus in America for almost 75 years. And it should be! As a Christian myself, with a very particular view of my faith and how I want it taught to my children, the last people I want teaching them how to pray or read the Bible is their teacher, someone who is neither trained to do so, nor is someone who I may agree with religiously. Further, I don’t want faith being dictated from the courthouse. Again, my faith is a result of my connection to God and the teachings of the Church community I come from. Some of the last people I want taking a role in the public expression of my faith are judges and lawyers and politicians. I would think conservative Christians would agree with that assessment! So, when liberals and Democrats defend the strict separation of Church and State, and oppose the practice of prayer or religion in public schools and other public forums, it baffles me that conservative Christians – usually so skeptical of the government – would all of the sudden be so gung ho for it to take such an active role in faith.

So, let me say it again: no one is going to shut down your church, ban your prayer, or restrict your right to experience God in whatever way you deem fit. I am willing to stake a large amount of money on that. What they are going to do is continue to defend the separation of Church and State, not so that religion has no role to play in our common life together, but so that those who have no business making decisions about our faith are staying out of it. Is it a perfect system? Not at all. But its the best we’ve got, and the deranged rantings of political opportunists cannot be allowed to undermine it.

Barack Obama and the Evangelicals

I am fascinated with Michael Wear’s piece at Christianity Today on the relationship between President Barack Obama and American evangelicals. Drawing on his new book Reclaiming Faith: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America, Wear tries to answer the question of why evangelicals hated Obama so much, but love Donald Trump.

obama-faith-outreach-na02-wide-horizontal3I’ll admit, this question has been central in my mind since Trump burst onto the political main-stage three years ago. The deep hatred and disdain evangelicals have for Obama baffles me. There is no doubt in my mind that President Obama governed in a Christian manner like few others before him have. I don’t mean he participated in the cheap, public displays of devotion that a George W. Bush or Ted Cruz engage in. Rather, Obama was always thoughtful, humble, and driven by deep convictions of morality and regard for human dignity. He never stood on a stage and declared himself “born again,” but he did showcase a deep knowledge and regard of the Christian faith, and clearly let himself be driven by it. He was committed to his family, and to American families as a goal of American policy. When speaking of faith, he spoke with great knowledge and reverence for God and Scripture.

As a Christian with a background in politics and policy, I can’t see many areas where I would have made choices much different that Obama with regards to faith (drone strikes overseas and other foreign policy choices are the chief areas that come to mind.) The public expression of faith exhibited by Barack Obama is something I would hope to emulate if I were again pursuing a career in public service.

Beyond personality, Obama’s Administration was much more faith friendly that it gets credit for, something Wear points out:

President Obama came into Office with plans to deliver on the promise of his campaign outreach to people of faith, including evangelicals. He kept and expanded the White House faith-based initiative, creating an advisory council (which, unlike the current president’s council, was official, established by executive order for the purpose of providing recommendations to the president and the federal government) that included robust evangelical participation. Four months into his Administration, he delivered a passionate case to heal national divides around abortion by seeking to ‘reduce the number of women seeking abortions’ while maintaining his commitment to Roe v. Wade. This speech was followed-up by years of staff work, overseen by the president, to pursue this common ground. Evangelicals were central to many of President Obama’s signature achievements: the Affordable Care Act, New START, the Paris Agreement, the expansion of America’s effort to combat human trafficking, and the rejection of deep social safety net cuts proposed by the Republican Congress.

Yet none of this is taken into account in the narrative that prevails about Obama and faith. And with good reason. The Religious Right made the decision early on, mirroring Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party, to blindly oppose everything the President did. Wear goes on:

In addition to discussing these partnerships, my recent book, Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America, also describes why the president’s olive branch withered. On the right, political Religious Right groups made it their mission to sow distrust of and animosity toward the president. This went far beyond opposing specific policies or values of the Obama Administration. They did this through spreading half-truths, tolerating or promoting conspiracy theories, and insisting that Obama was an existential threat to their faith and the nation, among other things. There were notable exceptions to this fearmongering, but they were, sadly, in the minority and suffered under accusations of being closet liberals by their fellow evangelicals.

Evangelicals doubled down on abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious freedom issues, elevating these three areas over everything else. Where Obama looked for areas of cooperation and shared values, evangelicals made the decision to focus only on differences.

Wear points out that this attitude, driven by fear and loathing of someone they only saw as an “other,” led directly to President Donald Trump:

Fear was the primary basis of Donald Trump’s appeals to evangelicals. He did not pretend he was one of them. He told them they were alone, that Democrats were out to get them, that ISIS was ‘drowning Christians in steel cages,’ and only he could protect them. He offered himself as a bully. Yes, he had flaws. Yes, his pagan approach to sex, money and power was evident and unseemly, inconveniently brought to the surface repeatedly during his campaign. But he would be their bully.

Evangelicals, driven by eight years of hate, began to believe their own propaganda, that the various disagreements they held with Barack Obama not only outweighed their numerous agreements, but in fact signaled a coming apocalypse for American Christianity. Minor disagreements could not be tolerated, because they indicated, to them at least, the cracks showing deep seated liberal hatred for all things Christian. So they took a bet on a strongman to save them from a non-existent boogeyman. In return for his “protection,” they get to carry his baggage forward for decades to come, tarnishing their own reputations and making themselves culturally irrelevant.

Wear eloquently discusses the consequences of this choice:

Evangelicals may find such attention as they received from Barack Obama more hard to come by after the Trump era takes its full toll. In years to come, I believe evangelicals will view Barack Obama’s disappointment toward them in a different light. They will see that it reflected much higher esteem than either Hillary Clinton’s cold disregard or Donald Trump’s toxic embrace. As they acclimate to the cultural changes that drove them to Trump, and understand just what their support of Trump cost them and our country, they will look back and see that Obama’s disappointment was a compliment.

President Obama was indeed a liberal, and a supporter of women’s choice, equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, and an expansive view of the separation of church and state that makes room for all faiths and non-faiths. He also was passionate about reinvigorating American families, combating poverty and declining standards of living, pursuing broader economic equality, and presenting a more humble, more humane, and more compassionate America to the world. American evangelicals let their own fear and hate deprive them of a great opportunity, one they may not get again in the future.

H/T to John Fea for bringing this article to my attention.