Written by Don Byrd
What place does religion have in politics? People of faith who also believe in the separation of church and state often wrestle with this question.
There is no religious test for political office in America – an essential rule for religious freedom (though it’s often forgotten) and the health of our democracy. And yet, it can be entirely appropriate for candidates to discuss the role his or her faith plays in informing their approach to the office they seek. As Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee wrote in his Ten Commandment for Campaigns column a year ago, “Thou shalt feel free to discuss the role religion plays in shaping your values, character and worldview.”
“Feel free,” however, does not mean “feel obligated.”
I thought about that as I was listening to last night’s Democratic presidential debate. Moderator Anderson Cooper pressed Senator Bernie Sanders (R-VT) for not highlighting in his campaign the fact that he is Jewish. Here is an excerpt of that exchange, including the initial question and answer, from the Washington Post debate transcript:
QUESTION: Thank you. Senator Sanders, do you believe that God is relevant, why or why not?
SANDERS: Well, I think — well, the answer is yes, and I think when we talk about God whether it is Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, or Buddhism, what we are talking about is what all religions hold dear. And, that is to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.
(APPLAUSE)
I am here tonight, and I’m running for president. I’m a United States Senator from my great state of Vermont because I believe that, because I believe morally and ethically we do not have a right to turn our backs on children in Flint, Michigan who are being poisoned, or veterans who are sleeping out on the street.
(APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: What I believe as the father of seven beautiful grandchildren, I want you to worry about my grandchildren, and I promise you I will worry about your family. We are in this together.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Sanders, let me just follow up. Just this weekend there was an article I read in the Detroit News [you can read it here] saying that you keep your Judaism in the background, and that’s disappointing some Jewish leaders. Is that intentional?
SANDERS: No. I am very proud to be Jewish, and being Jewish is so much of what I am.
Look, my father’s family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust. I know about what crazy and radical, and extremist politics mean. I learned that lesson as a tiny, tiny child when my mother would take me shopping, and we would see people working in stores who had numbers on their arms because they were in Hitler’s concentration camp.
I am very proud of being Jewish, and that is an essential part of who I am as a human being.
We live in an age politically where candidates often seem to step over themselves to demonstrate their religiosity, and the importance of faith in their lives. That can be ok, if done appropriately (see Walker’s Ten Commandments column).
But a candidate should absolutely be free to not emphasize or discuss in detail the role of faith in his life and politics, without being accused of either betraying his religion or being insufficiently religious. Why should we treat with more suspicion a candidate who lives their faith in relative privacy than we do one who wears it prominently for all to see?
Feel free, candidates, to discuss the way your faith shapes your values and policies. But all should know that *there is no one way to exercise that freedom* that is more, or less, religious than others.
