Religious Tests of Campaign 2012 (Prepare to be insulted)

Hot Trends Hourly ^ | July 3, 2011 | Rev. Howard Bess

[ansel12]

The media has a habit of covering up that all Christian denominations share the same position on Mormonism.

[darrellmaurina]

Posted on Sunday, July 03, 2011 7:54:50 PM by miele man: “First time I’ve heard the term, “Masonic brand of Protestanism”. Any idea of what this actually means? Anyone?”

Actually, I've seen that phrase and its equivalents fairly often in discussions of religious aspects of politics in the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. I'm not going to get into a discussion of whether membership in Masonic lodges is compatible with Christian principles — I have too many friends on both sides of that issue to have strong views on the subject, but I think the author has an important point, historically speaking.

Of course, I can't speak with certainty for this specific author (who, BTW, is an American Baptist, the liberal Northern wing of the Baptist tradition). My guess, and I think it's a pretty good guess, is that his point is that the type of religion professed by people at the upper levels of American politics often tended to be a sort of “I believe in God, but let's not get too specific” lowest-common-denominator faith. That may be enough to get you into the Masons or the Boy Scouts, but it is definitely not the sort of fiery Christianity associated with the First or Second Great Awakening, or, for that matter, conservative forms of Roman Catholicism.

Mainline churches are today politically irrelevant due to the rise of liberalism which led, in time, to declining membership and finances. There was a day that was not the case; a generic affirmation of God and commonly accepted moral principles got people much farther in politics than profession of “sectarian” religious views for much of American history.

That changed with the rise of liberalism in the early 1900s, which as a counter-reaction generated the evangelical revolt that began to carry political consequences after the 1960s and has been a major factor in American politics at least since the election of Ronald Reagan and probably back to the election of Jimmy Carter.