Evangelical Christians and American Politics

Conservative evangelical Christians disingenuously argue that their primary concern is that religion play a respected role in policy debates. The truth is that they are primarily concerned with having policies based on their religious beliefs be enforced through public law. The experience of Jimmy Carter reveals the difference here.

The Autumn 2005 issue of Wilson Quarterly discusses “Jimmy Carter: The Re-emergence of Faith-Based Politics and the Abortion Rights Issue” by Andrew R. Flint and Joy Porter, in Presidential Studies Quarterly (March 2005):

Expecting Carter to fulfill his campaign promise to, in his words, “try to shape government so it does exemplify the teaching of God,” evangelical conservatives failed to notice or take seriously his stated commitment to the Baptist belief in absolute separation of church and state. ... When Carter made his personal antiabortion views clear during the campaign, his candidacy drew evangelicals into the movement. But they failed to pay attention to Carter’s oft-repeated promise to uphold the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. His refusal in the White House to back a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion alienated evangelicals, even as his refusal to support federal funding for abortion alienated pro-choice feminists.

Evangelicals’ disillusion with Carter and his liberal political agenda set in as early as 1978. “His advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment and gay rights and his failure to support mandatory prayer in public schools or to move to ban abortion were all anathema to their religious principles,” the authors write. By 1979, disenchanted evangelicals had begun to coalesce around a political agenda, forming organized pressure groups such as televangelist Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.

Jimmy Carter is and was an evangelical Christian whose religious faith is undisputed — he even continued teaching Sunday School classes while president. He didn’t check his religious faith at the White House door, ensuring that religious values played a role in policy decisions. The problem for conservative evangelicals is that merely “playing a role” wasn’t enough. Jimmy Carter refused to govern solely according to his personal religious beliefs and that’s what evangelicals really wanted.

Carter recognized that he was president of a nation with many different religious beliefs and perspectives, so it would be inappropriate for him to impose his religious ideals on the entire country via the force of law. He believed that people should change their minds about abortion, but not that abortion should be criminalized. Because conservative evangelicals turned against an evangelical Christian who refused to enforce his beliefs through the law, their real goals and interests became evident.

 

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