In last week’s New Statesman, Alice Miles examined the role of religion in the current US political scene. She pointed out that a key difference between Britain and the US is the role that religion plays in politics on the other side of the Atlantic, where US presidents have long sought to derive legitimacy from God. Despite, this, however, there are concerns:
Even in a country as religious as the US, the current line-up of Republican presidential hopefuls is causing some alarm. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are Mormons, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are evangelical Christians and Rick Santorum is a conservative Catholic. In August, a profile of Bachmann in the New Yorker that traced her religious influences to a school of evangelical thought called dominionism sparked nervousness among liberals.
Followers of dominionism, in its soft form, believe that Christians should reassert control over political institutions. In its hardest form, it demands the replacement of secular government with Old Testament law. It is derived from Genesis 1:26: “And God said, ‘Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'”
One would have thought that there were few alarming religious surprises left in a potential presidential candidate who fasted for three days, asking God whether she should run for Congress; who has advised followers to “be hot for the Lord”; and who once declared: “When we are on fire for Jesus, we can change the world in His name!” Apparently there are.
Some liberals have noted that extreme Christian religions welcome wars and destruction that signal a coming rapture and the return of Christ. When the first reports emerged about Rick Perry’s dominionist supporters, Bill Keller in the New York Times demanded that candidates be asked questions about their faith, such as: “Do you agree with those religious leaders who say that the US is a ‘Christian nation’ or a ‘Judaeo-Christian nation’? And what does that mean in practice?” Or, “Would you have any hesitation about appointing a Muslim to the federal bench? What about an atheist?”
You can read the rest of the column here.
Content from our partners
Related
