Religion in American Politics

The United States is a very religious nation and, as a consequence, religion has long played at least something of a role in political campaigns - but the role of religion has been getting larger and larger. Today, it seems as though many candidates are running specifically as religious candidates, asking voters to support them for religious reasons. American politics is being divided along religious lines, and that is very disturbing.

Geneive Abdo writes in the Sun Herald:

"There are two reasons religion will play a greater role in this presidential election," said John Green, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. "One is we have a degree of religious polarization we haven't had before. Each party has to stress certain religious issues if they want support, and this is particularly important if the election will be as close as it appears," he said. The second reason is the presence of voters within a religious constituency who might deviate from the trends, Green said. "Because of these swing groups, we will see a much larger volume of religious rhetoric," he said.

I'm concerned about people campaigning on the basis or primarily on the basis of religion. Frankly, I don't think that religion should be a political issue - candidates shouldn't be debating who is "really" religious, who is a "True Christian," and whose religion is "better." That's simply too dangerous.

Read More:

• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101