The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities

1 Christian Media, Gender, and Civic Participation

1 1 Christian Media, Gender, and Civic Participation Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20 If you listened to one set of doomsayers at the close of the twentieth century , it seemed that the once-robust American tradition of civic participation had atrophied. Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” thesis sounded the alarm: Americans had ceased to volunteer, support charities, and join community organizations—at least at levels rivaling previous generations.1 In the political arena, citizens showed little interest in legislative debates, they failed to follow the news carefully, and they could not distinguish between one candidate and the next. Studies warned us that America’s children seemed poised to continue these trends; even college students reportedly failed the most straightforward civics exams.2 By the end of the twentieth century, the days of citizen activism, protest marches, and patriotic sacrifice were little more than a distant memory, it seemed. Amidst this dismal trajectory of civic decline, one demographic stood out for bucking the trend: regular churchgoers. Putnam admitted that Americans in this category were “substantially more likely to be involved in secular organizations, to vote and participate politically in other ways, and 2 g The Faithful Citizen to have deeper informal social connections.”3 Robert Wuthnow concurred that regular religious participants, especially in mainline Protestant traditions , were more likely to participate in civic life.4 But both men identified worrisome trends even among this demographic: Wuthnow agonized about the civic implications of declining membership in mainline Protestant denominations, and Putnam feared that membership was shifting toward the Christian traditions (including evangelicalism) that place less emphasis on community involvement outside the church.5 In short, according to both Putnam and Wuthnow, generally positive correlations between religious participation and civic engagement may not ensure vital civic life in the years to come. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, at least following the 2004 election, it was nearly impossible to escape news coverage narrating the political ascent of “evangelical Christians.”6 As journalists pored over exit poll data, they concluded that these “values voters” had turned out in record numbers and cast a unified ballot based on the “moral issues,” helping guarantee George W. Bush’s reelection. Against the widespread tide of civic disengagement, these “evangelical Christians” had seemingly discovered political influence anew. Beyond the ballot box, they donated to candidates , staged public demonstrations, and participated in talk radio shows. Their signature issues were gay marriage and abortion, but they also predictably supported prayer in schools and posting the Ten Commandments in public places, just as they predictably opposed stem cell research and gun control. They arrived at these political priorities through obsequious devotion to the pronouncements made by the figureheads of their movement— James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. Or so the news media taught us. The 2008 election cycle confounded, complicated, and continued these various narratives about religion and civic participation, as it also foregrounded race and gender as demographic variables. The contest confounded Putnam’s civic decline thesis because the primaries and general election alike witnessed an upsurge in political participation by young adults and other previously disengaged citizens.7 The day after the Texas primary, the Austin American-Statesman called the event a “democracy love fest” for all the enthusiasm it generated.8 No one who watched college students pack sports arenas to hear a presidential candidate speak could doubt that we were witnessing a renaissance of political enthusiasm among young voters.9 During the 2008 contest, journalists and campaigns alike continued the trend of exalting evangelical Christians as a demographic group. In Christian Media, Gender, and Civic Participation f 3 this case, however, the supposedly unified voting bloc fractured. With the deaths of figureheads like Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy, James Dobson inherited the symbolic leadership of their movement, and he used his popular pulpit to offer only intermittent and tepid support for Republican nominee John McCain.10 Meanwhile, Rick Warren, pastor of the Southern California megachurch...