Will the Last Theocrat Please Stand!

Role of religion in politics debated

Friday, Mar 07, 2008 - 07:59 AM

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

God knows, religion has found its way into the 2008 presidential race.

In a debate last night on religion in politics and government, a scholar, two activists and a cleric said competing views of faith are coloring the campaign to succeed President Bush, who is among the most openly devout presidents since Jimmy Carter a generation ago.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., and a proponent of religious activism in public life, said "faith will be the spoiler" and will determine who wins the presidency.

However, Jackson said any "discussion of faith and its content is not meant to X people out." Rather, he said, it is a means by which voters come to understand candidates.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said religion is already prominent in the campaign, and because of that candidates are being judged not by their records but how religion might affect their policies.

"I don't want a theocracy, even if it's by a democratic vote," Lynn said.

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Jackson, Lynn, Nixon White House aide-turned-prisons ministries advocate Charles W. Colson and Jacques D. Berlinerblau, professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University, appeared at a debate sponsored by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who on Tuesday dropped out of the race with U.S. Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination, is a Baptist minister. Another one-time candidate, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, was called on to explain his Mormon faith.

Among Democrats, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York have publicly discussed how faith guides their lives.

The debate -- recorded at the Jefferson Hotel for broadcast on public television stations across the country -- is the latest in a series, which the center's executive director, former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, described as a "response to public dismay over what passes for public discussion" of often-volatile issues.

Colson, who served seven months in prison after pleading guilty to Watergate crimes, said the absence in the current campaign of religious-oriented political organizations, akin to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, "is a sign that Christianity in the political movement is growing up."

But Berlinerblau said those who mix religion and politics overlook a tradition of avoiding that mixture. As evidence of what he described as a "clear, apolitical strain" among religious figures, Berlinerblau cited remarks by Falwell in 1964 that a pastor's place is behind the pulpit.

The moderator, Newsweek editor at large Evan Thomas, opened the debate by suggesting that religion is at the "heart of the culture wars" that divide the nation.

Previous debates focused on the Iraq war and privacy issues. Future topics include health care and immigration.

The Miller Center's National Discussion and Debate Series is underwritten by philanthropists Frederic W. Scott and Anne R. Worrell. Sponsors of the Richmond event include the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Check inRich.com or TimesDispatch.com later today to see a video of the debate. Keyword: video.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.