For many college students, the first years away from home are a time to reevaluate our lives in an unfamiliar setting. A common occurrence in college is for many students to take a break from the religious practice they’ve been brought up in. I myself have, for the moment, let go of my Catholic upbringing. I do not belong to any church or hold any strong views on the subject of religion other than that I had my fill of it while I was growing up and need a break from it. However, religion never really leaves our lives, as it continues to shape how people think and respond to issues long after a church, mosque or temple service is over.
Given the large role religion plays in society, it is no surprise that political campaigns and public figures seek to use religion as a justification or selling point for their platform and character. The presidential campaign season has already seen its fair share of religious issues. However, I can’t help but feel the public discussion of religious issues, particularly in a political context, makes a mockery out of faith.
When Sarah Palin was picked by John McCain to be his vice president, she was widely celebrated in conservative, evangelical circles as a woman whose beliefs resembled their own. Thus, it is no surprise that someone with a background like Sarah Palin speaks to church groups or uses religious references in her speeches. Yet I was surprised with the content of a speech she gave to the Wasilla Assembly of God earlier this summer. In that speech, she first asked the audience to pray for a natural gas pipeline, saying, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.”
Several minutes later in the speech, Palin again invoked God. She says, “Pray for our military men and women … that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”
I came across this speech while I was trying to find out more about Palin. At first glance, I didn’t really have any problem with the statements. Furthermore, the speech occurred before the presidential campaign. However, as I thought about it, I began to feel that these comments really include a tremendous amount of hubris involving assumptions about the plan and will of God.
The divine intervention Palin prayed for in the case of the natural gas pipeline came in the form of a half-a-billion-dollar giveaway to a Canadian oil company. Furthermore, the thought that God’s hand has somehow played any part in the sordid affairs of the Iraq conflict is enough to make anyone a committed atheist. Hearing someone make religious appeals based on either of these situations, with their backroom deals, political posturing and opportunistic self-interest, is disgusting.
Beyond Sarah Palin, the mid-August faith forum that both Barack Obama and John McCain participated in does not seem like a good precedent. In this instance, the impermanent nature of religion in all of its permutations and possibilities make it ill-advised to attempt to devote a question-and-answer session to the issue. Who selects the questions on faith? Rick Warren, the moderator of the debate, is the pastor of a 20,000-member evangelical Christian church. Does this qualify him to decide the questions? Perhaps a rabbi or a priest should have chosen them. All in all, I feel the whole religious interview process simply suffers from too many flaws to be worth doing. After all, who’s to say whose religion is right?
For the rest of this presidential election season I hope religion has now been exhausted in the discourse between the candidates. The problem with involving religion in the presidential campaign boils down to one thing: There’s no way to prove who’s right and who’s wrong.
Andrew Wagner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and political science.
