Religion in American Politics

The United States of America has the most diverse religious population in the world. In places like Iraq, Syria, Israel, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other countries too numerous to mention, countless lives are lost over religious differences. In America, a Protestant can live happily next door to a Jew, who might live across the street from a Muslim, or a Catholic, or a Sikh, or even a Humanist! This is in no small way attributed to the fact that the US Constitution’s First Amendment includes what is known as the establishment clause, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” effectively separating affairs of religious institutions from secular, governmental institutions. That is, however, no guarantee that American politics will turn a blind eye to religious beliefs. In fact, in the past few decades, political agendas have been turning more and more religious in nature(Paraschivescu 2012:22).

In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected the first Roman Catholic President of the United States, putting an end to the 171-year tradition of presidents, beginning with George Washington, that were from Protestant backgrounds. While many conservative Protestants scoffed at Kennedy as trying to break down the wall of separation between church and state and bring Catholic teachings into American government, Kennedy eloquently replied by saying, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell [a Catholic] president how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.” Kennedy went on to elaborate that no faith-based educational institution should be granted money by t...

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...olitical system for as long as Americans are religious.

References

Chapp, C. B. (2012). Religious rhetoric and American politics: The endurance of civil religion in electoral campaigns. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Fowler, Robert Booth, and Allen D. Hertzke. 1995. Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture and Strategic Choices. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Hertzke, Allen D. 1989. “The Role of Religious Lobbies.” Religion in American Politics. Ed. Charles W. Dunn. Washingtonc D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.

Kosmin, Barry A., and Seymour P. Lachman. 1993. One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society. New York: Harmony Books.

Paraschivescu, M. (2012). ‘We the People’ and God, religion and the political discourse in the United States of America. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 11(33), 21-38.