Religion in American Politics

Résumé du document

I would like to start this essay with a quote from Abraham Lincoln who declared: "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right". This famous quote highlights that the close links between religion and political life in the United States are not a recent phenomenon and are deeply rooted in the American tradition. Although, in the middle of the XXth century, America appeared like a rather secularist country things began to change with the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wane which legalized abortion in 1973. Since then, religious movements and organizations played an increasingly important role in the political life of the United States, and referring to religious values and to his personal faith became a requirement for any politician running for national positions. That is why, analyzing and measuring the importance of the religious dimension in the American political life is imperative if one wants to fully understand the rationale of elections or decision-making in the United States. We may therefore wonder in what way and to what extent we may consider that religion shapes the American political life?

Extraits

[...] As the columnist puts it “Americans also have a genius for mixing Realpolitik with their religion” and this is not likely to change when America is so concerned by the state of its economy or by the security of its access to energetic resources. To conclude, none of these articles denies the importance of religion in the American politics. One of them even states that secularism was suspicious in the eyes of the Americans and that there was “something unamerican” in it. [...]

[...] That is why religion can have such an important influence in the American decision-making process, especially in the area of foreign policy. Among the most eloquent exemples of the influence of religion on the American foreign policy is the Israel policy. Right after the war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, the New York Times shows that Evengelical groups have been strongly lobbying in favour of the support to Israel. To Evengelicals, Israel is a country which has been blessed by God, therefore, refusing to support it would be going against God's will. [...]

[...] These polls reveal that the number of Americans who thought that on social and political matters churches should express views has been declining for the last 12 years and that the decline has been sharper from 2004 to 2008, in other words during George W Bush's last mandate. For the first time in 2008, the number of Americans saying that on social and political matters churches should keep out exceeds the number of Americans considering that churches should express views, in both the Republican and the Democratic camps. Nevertheless, the Economist does not analyses this as a questioning of the part religions are playing in the American political system but rather as “frustration and disillusionement” after the intensive resourt to religious rhetoric during Bush's second mandate. [...]

[...] First and foremost, there is no denying that talking about the influence of “religion” on American politics can be misleading, that is to say that there is an important heteregoneity among the American religious groups which should not be underestimated: Catholics will not vote the same way as Jewish people will or, according to the intensity of your faith and your religious commitment you will not cast your vote according to the same criteria. This position also changes over time. [...]

[...] In June 2008, the Economist notices that seven out of ten American “routinely” admit that they want their President to have a strong personnal faith. The adverb “routinely” is particularly interesting here as it indicates that pollsters have been collecting this kind of answer very regularly and for a long time, that the desire to have a religious president is not something ponctual in the American politics, but on the contrary that the importance granted to religion is something which has been structuring the American political life for the last decades. [...]