Since the very beginning of the Rebellion, the Commander-in-Chief of American forces has had a unique religious role to play in this land with no established church and thus no established religious leader for the whole nation. Since Washington prayed before attacking those nice Lutheran boys who were just serving their king on Christmas morning in New Jersey, the Commander-in-Chief has taken on the mantle of a secular Pontifex Maximus. The president and his religion has an effect on the religious life of the nation and of our people. Below are some interesting clips of each of the four candidates who have widespread ballot access speaking on religious issues. Of course, Johnson the lapsed Lutheran and Goode the devout Baptist don't have a snowball's chance, but hey, it's a Lutheran blog and I love Virgil's accent.
It's been an interesting four years with Obama's brand of vague, liberal (or is it liberation?) Christianity in the White House. Don't you think that might have something to do with his policies on abortion, birth control, and healthcare? What would Mormonism in the White House mean? Is Johnson's lapsed Lutheranism any different? And what does Baptist eschatology have to do with Goode's fear of the green flag being planted above the White House?
Enjoy the clips - and if you are disappointed (or elated) next Wednesday morning, remember to pray:
Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. 2 While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. 5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: 8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: 9 The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 10 The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. Glory be. . .
+HRC
Perhaps an unwritten requirement for the Commander-in-Chief is that he not take his own religious commitment too seriously. While Romney has obediently jumped through every hoop of male LDS membership, including Ward Bishop I have seen no evidence of Mormon weirdness in anything he's said or done in the political arena. It is reasonable to hope that his Mormonism runs no deeper than the protestantism of Reagan, Clinton and Obama; or if it does, that he can keep it successfully compartmentalized.
ReplyDeletePerhaps. But perhaps we shouldn't count on everyone taking their religion as un-seriously as a Kennedy. As Rev Curtis pointed out -- Romney appears to take Mormonism seriously, and that may well influence how he governs. And what seriously religious person could blame him? This idea of compartmentalizing religion and public action is something invented by the secularists, and why should we listen to them?
DeleteAnd I'm not too sure that the office hasn't been filled with men true to a religion -- it just turns out that that religion is American Exceptionalism. How else do we presume to tell other countries what is right and wrong -- to the point of saying they must be a democracy (and not a socialist one, at that) -- not based on the word of God, but just on our own gut? How else do we proclaim ourselves the bright light, shining from a hill to all those know-nothings living in the dark?