Topic: Politics
“We have a government now that is trying to legislate what it means to be faithful—faithful to America, faithful to a particular religious perspective,” says Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance. “We heard that in the pre-inaugural sermon that the president was presented with, and if you don’t fit into that pretty narrow definition of what it means to be an American religious person, that has a chilling effect on your sense of being at home in this country.” More
James Madison offered small “r” republican government as the sentry against the universal human tendency “to go low” and enshrine it politically. He thought large republics avoided tyrannies of majority or minority by jamming the political works with significant numbers of elected officials who disagree. More
“Donald Trump captured 81 percent of the white evangelical vote. That was key, because if you take away the evangelical share of the vote, which is about a quarter, Hillary Clinton would have won by a landslide. Now, 81 percent is slightly more than Mitt Romney got, but keep in mind that this time around there were some evangelical leaders who were telling their followers not to vote for Donald Trump,” says Jerome Socolovsky, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service. More
“When you walk into the voting booth, I’ve compared it to the holy of holies in the ancient temple. A curtain is closed behind you. You are alone with your God and your vote. People will cast their votes listening to their hearts,” says Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance. More
“Right now, given the current climate and the political rhetoric, we are a target,” says Olivia Cantu, South Florida director of Emerge USA, a national organization that works to increase Muslim-American engagement in politics. “We are being attacked.” More
United Methodism, Roman Catholicism, evangelical Christianity, and “the power of positive thinking” have all shaped the politics and personal stories of this year’s candidates for national office. More
“Catholics are the perennial swing voters in American politics. Whichever way Catholics go, usually that’s the way the presidency goes. I expect that to be true this election, too,” says Professor Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America. More
“A lot of evangelicals are doubling down, especially that old-guard religious right, on their support of Trump. Never Trump evangelicals are saying look, this is the last straw. There’s no way any good evangelical can support this guy. The key is you’re seeing some of this showing up in the polls for white evangelical voters. They’re only supporting him about 65 percent. That’s not nearly enough to get Donald Trump into the White House,” says David Gibson, a national correspondent for Religion News Service. More
“The income and wealth disparity in our nation that’s tearing us apart, the anger, the fear, the judgmentalness, the racism that we’ve seen in our country—it’s tearing holes in the fabric of our society,” says Sister Simone Campbell, leader of Network Lobby’s Nuns on the Bus project. “Can we step together into a future, as opposed to pulling apart for partisan gain?” More
“I’m very interested in seeing some basic values return to the country. I care very deeply about life, I care deeply about marriage, I care deeply about religious liberty, I care deeply about issues of fiscal solvency,” says Reverend Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego. “The national debt is a biblical-moral issue to me, thou shalt not steal from future generations.” More
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