Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:04:01.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biblical Religion and American Politics: Some Historical and Theological Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1980, campaigns for political office from town councils to the White House were enlivened, if not always enlightened, by the vocal and sometimes strident participation of members of the clergy. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, emerged as a significant figure in the 1980 campaign, not only as the spokesman of the Moral Majority, but as the symbolic leader of the conservative forces dubbed by Martin E. Marty as the “Religious New Right.” Falwell took more credit than was perhaps his due for the election of Ronald Reagan. He also took credit for the defeat of several United States Senators, such as Birch Bayh, Frank Church, John Culver, and George McGovern, who seemed to Falwell unworthy of continued public service because their voting record was not sufficiently “pro-family.”

Type
Selected Speeches from the Harvard Symposium on “Religion, Law, and the Political Process Today”
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , Summer 1983 , pp. 171 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Undated letter from Norman Dorsen to potential contributors to the American Civil Liberties Union (Dec. 1980), pp. 1 and 2.

2. Id. at 3.

3. Alley, and Brown, , The Moral Monopoly, 3 Emmy Magazine No. 1 (1981) 35, at 41 Google Scholar.

4. Id. at 41 and 58.

5. Lewis, , Religion and Politics, The New York Times, 09 18, 1980 Google Scholar.

6. Id.

7. Id.

8. Lewis, , Political Religion, The New York Times, 09 25, 1980 Google Scholar.

9. Freund, , Public Aid to Parochial Schools, 82 Harv. L. Rev. 1680, 1692 (1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. Bd. of Ed. v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236 (1968).

11. Walz v. Tax Commission of City of New York, 397 U.S. 664 (1970).

12. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).

13. Gaffney, , Political Divisiveness Along Political Lines: The Entanglement of the Court in Sloppy History and Bad Public Policy, 24 St. Louis U.L.J. 205 (1980)Google Scholar.

14. The Federalist No. 10 ( Madison, J. reprinted in The Federalist Papers 77, (Rossiter, C. ed. 1961)Google Scholar.

15. The Federalist No. 51, supra note 14, at 234.

16. 1 Annals of Cong. 434 (06 8, 1789)Google Scholar.

17. Letter from James Madison to Rev. Adams (Nov. 1832), reprinted in IX The Writings of James Madison 487 (Hunt, G. ed. 1909)Google Scholar.

18. Id. at 485.

19. Id. at 487.

20. See Gaffney, supra note 13, at 212-24.

21. See, e.g., The Abolitionists: A Collection of Their Writings (Ruchames, L., ed. 1963)Google Scholar.

22. See, e.g., Myers, G., History of Bigotry in the United States (Christman, H. ed. 1960)Google Scholar.

23. See Coleman, , Vision and Praxis in American Catholic Theology, Theological Studies (3 1976)Google Scholar, reprinted in Coleman, J., An American Strategic Theology 75–85 (1982)Google Scholar.

24. Myers, supra note 22, at 268.

25. Tribe, L., American Constitutional Law 867 (1978)Google Scholar.

26. Mcrae v. Califano, 491 F. Supp. 630, 741 (E.D.N.Y. 1980) rev'd sub nom, Harris v. MacRae, 448 U.S. 297. In his opinion for the Court reversing the judgment of the District Court, Justice Stewart wrote: “That the Judaeo-Christian religions oppose stealing does not mean that a State or the Federal Government may not, consistent with the Establishment Clause, enact laws prohibiting larceny. The Hyde Amendment, as the District Court noted, is as much a reflection of ‘traditionalist’ values toward abortion, as it is an embodiment of the views of any particular religion. In sum, we are convinced that the fact that the funding restrictions in the Hyde Amendment may coincide with the religious tenets of the Roman Catholic Church does not, without more, contravene the Establishement Clause.” 448 U.S. at 319-20.

27. See Neuhaus, , Law and Rightness of Things, 14 Valparaiso L. Rev. 1 (1979)Google Scholar; and Neuhaus, , From Sacred to Profane American — and Back Again, Catholic Mind (09 1981), pp. 10–23 Google Scholar.

28. Karl Marx to Arnold Ruge, (May 1843), reprinted in 3 Marx, Karl, Frederick Engels — Collected Works 175 (1975)Google Scholar.

29. Cox, H., The Secular City (1965)Google Scholar.

30. See, e.g., Hiller, D., Covenant: The History of a Biblical Idea ((1969)Google Scholar.

31. See, e.g., Frankena, , The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon and the Dating of Deuteronomy, Oudtestamentische Studien 14 (1965) 122–54Google Scholar, and McCarthy, D., Old Testament Covenant: A Survey of Current Opinions 69–71 (1972)Google Scholar.

32. See Heschel, A., The Prophets (1962)Google Scholar; God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism 218–34, 249–56 (1955)Google Scholar; The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence 9–14, 56, 92–93, 102–103 (1967)Google Scholar.

33. See Coleman, supra note 23.

34. Rauschenbush, W., Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907)Google Scholar; Christianizing the Social Order (1912); The Social Principles of Jesus (1916); A Theology of the Social Gospel (1917).

35. Broderick, F., Right Reverend New Dealer: John Ryan (1963)Google Scholar; see also Curran, C., American Catholic Social Ethics (1982)Google Scholar, and J. Coleman, supra note 23, at pp. 85-97.

36. Niebuhr, R., Beyond Tragedy (1937)Google Scholar; Christianity and Power Politics (1940); The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944); Christian Realism and Political Problems (1953); The Godly and the Ungodly(1959).

37. Niebuhr, H. R., The Kingdom of God in America (1937)Google Scholar, and Christ and Culture (1951).

38. Murray, J., We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition (1960)Google Scholar; and see Love, T., John Courtney Murray: Contemporary Church-State Theory (1965)Google Scholar, and J. Coleman, supra note 23, pp. at 97-103.

39. Metz, J., Theology of the World 114 (1971)Google Scholar.

40. Id. at 119-20.

41. See Yoder, J., The Politics of Jesus (1972)Google Scholar.

42. See Stringfellow, W., Conscience and Obedience: The Politics of Romans 13 and Revelation 13 in the Light of the Second Coming (1977)Google Scholar.

43. Berman, H., The Interaction of Law and Religion (1974)Google Scholar.

44. Bell, D., The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)Google Scholar.

45. Neuhaus, supra note 27.