Red v. Blue, Shame on Us
by Michael Carl
            Now that the dust from the recent presidential election has almost settled, it might be appropriate to take a genuine faith-centered look at the results. 
            Immediately following the election, a few columnists at the nation’s newspaper of record couldn’t resist the temptation to lambaste the folks in the “Red States” (a false dichotomy from the get-go) as backward, ignorant, superstitious, and clueless bumpkins.  Maureen Dowd’s words were so loaded with venom that thinking persons should have felt sick to their stomach. 
Dowd wrote, “The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

“W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq -- drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or ''values voters,'' as they call themselves (italics are mine), to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.”

Ms. Dowd apparently doesn’t care for those who vote according to their religious conscience, unless the votes correspond with her world view.

Yet, the pundits on the right were just as uncharitable to those on the other side.  Ann Coulter couldn’t resist taking a few potshots of her own.  In her November 18^th column she wrote, “Democrats are saying to voters: How can you be so stupid to subordinate your own selfish economic interests to "moral values," the betterment of the country and the general welfare of people you don't even know?” 

Neither of these otherwise brilliant, accomplished women leaves any room for the possibility that some voters might have honestly agonized over the choice.  Neither account for the likelihood that many voters probably winced and grimaced as they cast their vote for the “lesser of two evils.”

Analysis that labels honest, faith-filled Americans as either Red State or Blue State adherents cheapens the heart of people of faith. 

In his recent book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, politically progressive evangelical pastor Jim Wallis quite properly casts political stones at both political camps. 

The Rev. Wallis is on target as he observes that in many cases, conservatives have merely cloaked their politics in religious jargon to win support for the Republican Party.  He’s equally on target when he critiques the left as arrogantly asserting that people who believe the Bible are ignorant, uneducated dolts who base their lives on fairy tales.

 The truth is, and as painful as it may be to admit, neither political party completely represents a Biblical world view.

The Rev. Wallis makes his best contributions to the pubic debate when he says that there is a very proper place for people of faith in politics.  Rev. Wallis eloquently states the case for faith in the public discourse when he writes, “The separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square.  In fact, America’s social fabric depends on such values and vision to shape our politics—a dependence the founder’s recognized.”

He continues, “It is indeed possible (and necessary) to express one’s faith and convictions about public policy while still respecting the pluralism of American democ-racy.”

Amen!

People of faith have always been in the forefront of the great reform movements.

In Britain, it was the Rev. John Wesley who sowed the seeds of the abolitionist movement.  It was the Christian member of Parliament William Wilberforce who began a thirty year crusade to pass laws to outlaw it throughout the British Empire.

The truth of the matter is that people of faith have always been involved in America’s greatest social movements.  While some churches fraudulently interpreted the Scriptures to justify slavery, it was Northern Baptists and Methodists who championed the abolitionist movement.  People of faith like William Jennings Bryan championed the cause to abolish child labor.

No one can dispute the impact people of faith like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy had on the Civil Rights movement. 

The bottom line is this.  Regardless of what the poisoned word processor of any columnist says, people of faith have a rightful place in the arena of ideas.  Political discourse properly informed by a faith clothed in the mercy of God will always make a healthy contribution to American life and public policy.

Michael Carl is a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, pastor of a church in Wakefield, MA and is president of The Heritage Alliance, a public policy research group.