By Rudy Barnes, Jr.
Following the recent elections, several losing candidates complained that the results were not democratic. They challenged the legitimacy of democracy in elections that reflected the values and moral standards of the American civil religion. Apparently they forgot that those election results were shaped by the faith of the majority of voters.
Democracy in America has always been divisive and often ugly, but with the exception of the Civil War years it has held together. Today conflicting concepts of legitimacy promoted by a polarized partisan duopoly threaten to unravel the fabric of American democracy; and at the heart of those conflicting concepts of legitimacy are conflicting moral beliefs within Christianity.
The viability of any democracy depends upon balancing individual wants and rights with providing for the common good. That balance can be promoted by the greatest commandment to love God and to love our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves--and it’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
Over 70% of Americans consider themselves Christians, but they have fundamental differences on concepts of political legitimacy. Most emphasize the special interests of partisan identity groups over providing for the common good. Unless they reverse those priorities and put common interests over partisan interests, the fabric of democracy will unravel.
Most Christian evangelicals actively support radical right Republican politics with distorted doctrines of family values and a materialistic prosperity gospel. Most white Christians avoid discussing faith and politics in church and support Republicans. Conversely, most black Christians support leftist Democrats. The result is partisan politics polarized along racial lines.
American democracy needs a moral reformation of its politics and religion, and so long as Christians represent a majority of Americans that reformation must begin within the church. It will require pastors to promote the stewardship of democracy based on the altruistic moral imperative of the greatest commandment to love all of our neighbors--even those we don’t like.
We have a long way to go. The success of a church is measured by its popularity, and loving the unlovable is not popular in any democracy. Career-minded pastors are reluctant to preach an unpopular gospel. While scriptures mandate helping the poor and weak as the common good, they don’t mention democracy since it was irrelevant in those ancient times.
There is a world-wide demise of democracy. Unprincipled populist politicians like Donald Trump are exploiting public fears to promote their popularity and power. Most people in the world are religious, and increasing religious diversity will require making the altruistic moral imperative of the greatest commandment a universal priority of political legitimacy in democracy.
Christianity and politics come together in the American civil religion. It has been described “as a cohesive force, a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration.” It reflects the standards of political legitimacy in America, and its tenets are a non-sectarian composite of Christian doctrinal beliefs that were challenged by evangelicals in the 2016 election.
The legitimacy of democracy in America is threatened by radical right politics that exploit racial and partisan polarization. To preserve democracy Christians must assume the moral stewardship of democracy and promote the relevance of the altruistic and universalist teachings of Jesus to politics, and they should abandon exclusivist beliefs to improve interfaith relations.
Notes:
Legitimacy is a norm of values, morality and law derived from religion and shaped by changing cultural standards. Standards of legitimacy are not absolute and vary based on time and place. This is evident in the requirements of military legitimacy, a component of political legitimacy, that are defined and discussed in Barnes, Military Legitimacy: Might and Right in the New Millennium (Frank Cass, 1996), pages 48-53, posted in Resources at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/.
On how the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad relate to legitimacy, see The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy, an interfaith study guide posted in Resources at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/.
Anthony Squiers has identified fourteen principal tenets of the American civil religion (ACR) that reflect the kinship of American values and moral standards to Christian beliefs:
- Filial piety
- Reference to certain sacred texts and symbols of the ACR (The Constitution, The Declaration of independence, the flag, etc.)
- The sanctity of American institutions
- The belief in God or a deity
- The idea that rights are divinely given
- The notion that freedom comes from God through government
- Governmental authority comes from God or a higher transcendent authority
- The conviction that God can be known through the American experience
- God is the supreme judge
- God is sovereign
- America’s prosperity results from God’s providence
- America is a ‘city on a hill’ or a beacon of hope and righteousness
- The principle of sacrificial death and rebirth
- America serves a higher purpose than self interests
See the American civil religion in Wikipedea at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion.
Max Boot has attributed the world-wide demise of democracy to increased economic disparities, an information revolution that has destabilized economies and politics, and xenophobia caused by “the largest refugee crisis in history.” See https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/democracy-is-in-crisis-around-the-world-why/2018/11/21/ccb6423c-ecf4-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html?utm_term=.3cf84c93e541&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1.
Michael Gerson has noted that universal human rights that are essential to political legitimacy in a libertarian democracy have become the cost of historical amnesia. He cites “...the election of an American president who is both ignorant of and indifferent toward the lessons of the last century, or any century. A president who always turns, by feral instinct, to an organizing message of bigotry and exclusion. A president who is throwing away an inheritance he does not value and unleashing forces that can easily move beyond control. with the rise of radical right political movements.” See https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/one-of-the-worst-things-about-our-awful-political-moment/2018/11/19/b75d6a28-ec2c-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html?utm_term=.8fcb29754d59&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1.
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