A secular/faith disconnect

In the April 24, 2006, issue of Time magazine, it is reported that 62 percent of college Republicans believe that religion is losing its influence on American life and 87 percent of this number say the apparent decline is a "bad thing."

"On the other hand, 54 percent of college Democrats believe that religion's influence on American life is increasing and two-thirds of this group think the perceived growing sway of faith is a "bad thing."

Of all the polls, articles, and reports I have read or seen, this small but significant sampling says more to the cultural divide this country faces than anything else I have observed. As we have seen in the last two Presidential elections, the country is divided right down the middle, with the Democratic candidate receiving a few more votes than the Republican candidate in 2000 and the Republican candidate receiving a few more votes than the Democratic candidate in 2004.

And the agendas of the two parties have never been more disconnected; the gap between what is believed to be good and bad for the country has never been wider and I believe the secular/faith disconnect lies at the very heart of this difference. There is no question that the votes that swung both of the above elections in favor of the Republican candidate were faith- based votes. Conservative Christians were the bedrock of his support. He mentioned that numerous times in his campaigns and openly stated that he needed their overwhelming support to win. He was not disappointed.

One can check most of the issues that arise in every campaign and find most of the Republicans on one side, most of the Democrats on the other. The President has presented his agenda over the past six years to a Republican controlled Congress and they have not disappointed him either. Republicans have voted unanimously in favor of practically everything he‚s sent them. However, it appears that chinks are now appearing in the suit of armor the Republicans have enjoyed for so long and the tide may be turning. That should not come as a shock either. If you look at political history in this country, the pendulum never stops swinging. It goes from left to right, from Democrat to Republican and from right to left, from Republican to Democrat on a regular, almost predictable basis, and it appears the pendulum is about to swing back once again.

But let me go back to the statistics used in the beginning of this column. It's rather amazing, actually, that Americans can live in the same country, occupy the same space, live next door to each other, work and play with each other and yet have such different takes on the nature of life in this country and what the future portends. Conservative Christians really do believe that their faith is under attack and that religion IS losing its influence on American life.

They so believe this that they recently conducted a symposium in Washington D.C. where the main them was religion under attack. They believe this country was founded on Christian principles and those same principles should never be abandoned and must always be defended.

On the other hand, many Democrats believe in the separation of church and state that was a core principle of our Founding Fathers and that one particular religion should never dominate the landscape, either political or social. So, they don't see an erosion of religious influence at all, they see something totally different. They see a particular set of religious beliefs emerging as the "only" valid set of religious beliefs and anyone who does not believe in that model is either ungodly, unpatriotic, or both.

This disconnect cuts across far more lines than just religious lines, although religious belief is at the heart of a lot of it. A majority of Republicans oppose stem cell research, a majority of Democrats support it, a majority of Republicans support intelligent design as an alternative to evolution that should be taught in our public schools, a majority of Democrats oppose it on the grounds that it is a philosophy or a belief system and not a science and, consequently, should not be taught as a science.

Remarkably, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, recently was quoted as saying the following when asked about intelligent design, "It's a perfectly fine philosophy, but it has nothing to do with science and shouldn't be taught in science courses."

He's out of step with a majority of Republicans when taking that position. In other areas not directly related to religion or one's interpretation of religion, most Democrats believe that our planet is suffering from global warming, most Republicans don't.

Most Democrats believe that provisions should be made to accommodate illegal aliens from Mexico; most Republicans want to build a wall and send the offenders to prison. A majority of Democrats favor some kind of public assistance for the needy and the infirm, most Republicans don't. Most Republicans support free trade and big business, most Democrats support the little guy. The list goes on and on.

It's not unusual for people to look at the same thing and come up with different versions of what they see because we don't see anything as it is; we attach a meaning to everything we see and experience and respond to that meaning.

Every perspective we have on everything that exists in our society and our world is based on the norms, values, attitudes, and morals that we bring to the table and everything we experience is based on our own personal experience and interpretation and not someone else's.

So which way will our society go? Will we continue to support what has been the status quo for the past several years and return the Republicans to power once again or will we decide we're going in the wrong direction and return the Democrats to power?

It should make for a very interesting mid-term election year.