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1 1 From Revival to Religious Liberty When the Press Misses the Story The separating of church from state certainly has not meant—despite some shrill cries that it should—the separating of religion from politics. Far from it. Churches and churchgoers have been active in American politics and social policy on explicit religious grounds from the American Revolution through the abolition movement and the Civil War and the Social Gospel and the gospel of wealth and the Prohibition movement and the pacifist movement and the Civil Rights movement. . . . —William Lee Miller, The First Liberty: America’s Foundation in Religious Freedom The media woke up the day after the 2004 election to a collective sigh: “How did we miss the story?” The importance American voters place on religion and moral values had largely escaped the consciousness of political reporters. “The inescapable verdict is that many of us missed clue after clue to the true arc of Campaign 2004,” wrote John McCormick, deputy editor of the Chicago Tribune. “Yes, Fahrenheit 9/11 put a lot of fannies in theater seats— but it grossed less than one-third as much as The Passion of the Christ. For many of us in journalism, evangelical America is a parallel and foreign universe—alongside, but apart from, our more secular America.”1 Many in and outside the media were astonished by the exit polls, in which 22 percent of the voters cited “moral values” as the most important issue in their presidential choice, compared with jobs and the economy at 20 percent, terrorism at 19 percent, and Iraq at 15 percent.2 “This hit the newsrooms of America with gale force and was reported with breathless amazement,” wrote Ron Elving of National Public Radio. “American journalism remains loath to confront the interplay of religion and politics. We’d rather invoke separation of church and state and move on to topics we’re more comfortable with.”3 2 | From Revival to Religious Liberty By the 2006 mid-term elections, the message was sinking in with the media; and Americans began to have a change of heart as to which political party represented moral values. The congressional page scandal involving former Florida Republican Representative Mark Foley; the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal involving several prominent Republican lawmakers, and an ongoing string of corruption and ethics allegations dogged Republicans and helped bring about their downfall in both the House and the Senate. The Republican royal flush as the party of moral values in 2004 turned up snake eyes in 2006. The exit polls displayed a subtle shift of faith and politics: In 2004, 58 percent of voters who attend church services weekly voted for George W. Bush, and 41 percent of weekly church-goers voted for John Kerry.4 In 2006, 55 percent of voters who attend church services weekly voted for Republicans in congressional races, and 43 percent of voters who attend church services weekly voted for Democrats.5 The shift from 2004 to 2006 is relatively small and still within margin of error; but the races were close, and the disillusionment with the Republicans on moral grounds may have been just enough to tip the scales in the Democrats’ favor. Party politics aside, the election results and exit polls point to the integral connection between religion and politics, a connection that has existed from the early years of the Republic. Politicians can live or die by how they approach religious constituencies, as presidential hopeful John McCain found out the hard way in 2000 when he suggested that the conservative Christian leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were “agents of intolerance .”6 McCain’s comments helped mobilize evangelical Republicans behind George W. Bush, and McCain has been trying to repair relations with conservative Christian voters ever since. Discussion of religion and politics can turn an otherwise quiet dinner party into a shouting match.7 A connection of religion and politics can also destroy an otherwise civil society when church and state become one and the same—fused into a theocracy. The American founders were keenly aware of this danger when they crafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. At the forefront of their minds was the separation of church and state, which became the first sixteen words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Sixteen words with centuries of freight behind them; centuries of Christendom; centuries of wars and bloodshed over religion; but in...

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