FaithWorld

(Texas Governor Rick Perry (L) attempts to quiet the crowd after his introduction by Reverend C. L. Jackson (R) during "The Response", an event billed as a call to prayer for a nation in crisis, at Reliant stadium in Houston August 6, 2011/Richard Carson)

By Elizabeth E. Evans

As the campaign to win the Republican nomination in next year’s race for the White House goes into high gear, religious words matter – although there is considerable disagreement over what they actually mean.

It’s been only a few months since the race began in earnest, and religion already seems to be playing a central role in the campaign. So are faith buzzwords, controversy, and heated debate over the meaning and potential importance of what lies behind terminology like “dominionism” “submission” and the dreaded “t-word”, “theocracy.”

(Texas Governor Rick Perry at "The Response" in Houston August 6, 2011/Richard Carson

Perhaps the heated debate is inevitable, especially given the distinctly conservative religious views publicly expressed by two leading contenders, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Perry, who says he was raised as a United Methodist, a mainline Protestant denomination, still belongs to a Methodist Church in Austin, Texas.  But he has also said that he attends Lake Hills Church, a large nondenominational church affiliated with the Southern Baptists, more frequently.

The governor’s religious beliefs have attracted scrutiny not only because of his recent entrance into the race, but because of his well-publicized August 6 prayer rally, “The Response,” specifically billed as a Christian prayer service.  In addition, Perry drew headlines with his answer to a question from a little boy in New Hampshire a few weeks ago. Evolution, he said, was a “theory” that had “gaps” in it, adding, not entirely accurately, that in Texas schools teach both creationism and evolution.

Meanwhile, Bachmann was asked at an Iowa candidate’s debate whether (or not) she believes that she is called by God to practice “submission” to her husband, a practice common in many conservative Christian families. A few days ago (she says it was a joke) Bachmann gave a speech in which she said that the recent earthquake and hurricane were a message from God: “are you going to start listening to me here?”

In addition to the high volume of straightforward reporting, these comments and the candidate’s personal religious history have been analyzed and conclusions have been drawn. Here’s the lede of a June profile by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi: “Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that… God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government.”

(Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann arrives to speak to Republicans in Waterloo, Iowa, August 14, 2011/Jim Young)

And, from another journalist on the “holy war” beat (you’re probably going to see frequent military analogies in the run-up to the Republican primaries) comes this skeptical analysis of the conservative Christian company that Perry is alleged to keep in the left-leaning investigative journal, the Texas Observer: “Rick Perry’s Army of God.”

Over at the New Yorker, Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza spent time on the campaign trail with candidate Bachmann and wrote up his impressions as “The Transformation of Michele Bachmann.” Controversy has particularly swirled over Lizza’s comments about the late Francis Schaeffer, an iconic figure for many American evangelicals whom he labeled an “exotic  influence” (among others).  Lizza linked Bachmann to Schaeffer, whom he connected to Rousas Rushdoony , who argued that Old Testament law was the standard and would someday become part of American law. That linked Bachmann to a strain of conservative thought called Dominionism.

At the conservative publication The American Spectator, Baylor history professor Barry Hankins quickly responded: “… only a tiny minority of the Christian Right is devoted to Dominionism and an even smaller minority of the wider evangelical subculture.”

But what IS an evangelical?  In its simplest form, the term evangelical defines those who believe that “you need to have a conversion experience to be ‘saved,’ to go to heaven,” said Baylor University historian and scholar of religion Thomas Kidd. “One of the byproducts of the rise of the religious right is to say (that) if you are an evangelical, you must have certain religious experiences” said  Kidd.  He also noted that there is an increasing expectation that public figures, Democrats as well as Republicans, will be able to articulate what their faith means to them.

“A lot of people (on the left) say that the religious right is dead. It’s not dead, but reconstituted, with a different terminology” said Anthea Butler, University of Pennsylvania professor of religion.  Liberals who haven’t taken the evangelical right seriously are going to have a problem, she said.

(Haitian Evangelical Church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Montreal, January 24, 2010/Christinne Muschi)

Where once the term “evangelical “ could used to describe  Christians from a reformed tradition who believed that the Bible was the inspired, infallible word of God,  evangelicalism has recently been broadened by an infusion of Pentecostals and has acquired a more multiracial, multicultural cast, she added.

While Perry’s Christian-themed rally might not have been a big deal for many Texans, it did prompt questions among people in other parts of the country, said Kidd. “There are other, more subtle ways he could have communicated to his evangelical base ‘I’m one of you.’ I think it will come back to haunt him if he becomes the nominee.”

In bringing together a broad spectrum of conservative Christians, “Perry has brought everything out of darkness into the light” said Butler. “What Perry did in having the prayer meeting was getting all those people from different traditions under one roof. What they all have (in common) are conservative views about how the country should be run.”

Where Bachmann, with her conversion testimony, is unquestionably evangelical, Perry may be more of a “Johnny-come-lately” said Kidd, who added that he wasn’t speaking critically. “He (Perry) may be quite sincere.”

Kidd added that he is concerned about the recent emphasis on candidates giving personal testimonies to their faith. “I don’t mind the expectation that candidates will talk about faith, but the idea that everyone has to have a testimony isn’t a good trend in American politics…it’s not good for American civil society.”

Kidd would like to see more generosity and accommodation practiced by partisans on both sides of the political divide, he said.  “I’m fine with people disagreeing with Bachmann, but she’s not a theocrat.”  Conservative Christians, on the other hand, might consider finding ways to dialogue with people who don’t share their beliefs: “if you don’t have the same faith, that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk.”

(Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale in 1800/White House Historical Association)

In the run-up to the primary and 2012 election, it is particularly important that the media do a better job of educating themselves about the religious facets of the campaign, said Butler. “Everyone is waking up to the fact that we are at a very interesting juncture….trying to get a handle on it is very important.”

On the other hand, said Kidd philosophically, the current debate could have gotten a lot uglier. Take the 1800 election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, for instance. Every week the Federalists took out a newspaper advertisement asking whether Americans would prefer a “God and religion” leader like Adams to Jefferson and “no God.’

There is a certain comfort, he said, to knowing that there is nothing new under the sun.

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