Politics, religion inextricably intertwined

Just after Easter 42 years ago, I was only a few months into my first job on Capitol Hill with the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. The Committee closely monitored NASA, especially during manned space flight operations.

On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 had set off for the moon. But on the 13th we all heard Jim Lovell's five terrifying words, "Houston, we've had a problem." When you're 200,000 miles from Earth and you get a master alarm that indicates a main B bus undervolt, you know the spacecraft and its crew are in desperate, potentially unrecoverable circumstances.

Most of us know how NASA's ingenuity and the crew's bravery combined to enable them to return safely to Earth. Less well known is the way in which the government and the American people turned to God during this crisis. Most Americans, indeed millions around the world, began to pray to God for the safety and survival of Apollo's crew. Prayer is a solemn request for God's assistance. It inherently assumes the existence of a sovereign and holy God with dominion over the universe.

The U.S. Congress, controlled by the Democrats, swiftly passed a resolution urging prayer for the astronauts.

President Richard Nixon, a Republican, called for the nation to observe a day of prayer for the astronauts, and he said, "I think more people prayed last week than perhaps have prayed in many years in this country."

Nobody said any of this violated the separation of church and state. Nobody questioned the worth of prayer or the existence of God. But when government officially calls for prayer, it is assuming the existence of God; it is assuming such prayer is not in vain; and it is assuming that God in His providence may answer such prayer.

But look where we are now, 42 Easters later. The American people and their elected and appointed leaders in all three branches of the government are caught in an increasingly polarizing conflict between Christians who feel persecuted and secularists and atheists who are demanding that there can be no nexus between the state and religion. Religious wars are never pretty, and this one is no exception.

Most Americans have been taught to believe that mixing politics and religion is a bad idea. But that teaching flies straight into the face of this nation's history and heritage. And whether we like it or not, or whether we're willing to admit it or not, politics and religion are inextricably intertwined.

To sort this out, it's useful to look at the thinking of Michael Gerson. Gerson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post. Time magazine has called him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.

Gerson believes that too frequently the use of religion in politics has become a source of cynicism. By that he means that when faith adopts a political ideology too closely, it sacrifices its independence. Gerson abhors the extent to which some Christian evangelicals have twisted Christian social ethics into an uncompromising, anti-government ideology.

Gerson reminds us that, although Christ did not focus on Roman politics, Christ's teachings on compassion and human dignity have had dramatic public consequences. In other words, he's saying religion has and should continue to play a significant role in the definition of political priorities.

And he amplified these ideas at a recent speech delivered at Calvin College, an evangelical school in Michigan. He said, "Public expression of faith often reveals the deepest commitment of the faithful, and determines their image in the world." He went on to urge Calvin's students to engage the political system as the best way to strengthen justice and morality.

He's suggesting that the hard-edged, sometimes apocalyptic tone of the religious right is counterproductive. He argues that this "politicization of religion" has been responsible for the fact that many young people have turned against religion itself.

Gerson believes Christian political engagement is both worthy and necessary. But he also believes it needs to have at its center the protection of human dignity. Gerson is arguing for a redefinition of the interface between politics and government on the one hand and religious faith on the other. And that can be achieved if Christians understand that the vast majority of Americans reject both secularism and sectarianism.

Gerson's on to something here that has worth far beyond his focus on the role of faith in public life. The coarsened and bitter debate between evangelicals and secularists that Gerson finds so counterproductive is but another example of how the dominance of political power at the extreme right and the extreme left have polarized and paralyzed the political process and brought the federal government to its knees.

The only time I'd like to see the government on its knees is when it's praying.

Happy Easter.

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