American Values - Gary L. Bauer, President

Press Release Article

National Public Radio: Gary makes the case that politics is exactly where evangelical Christians belong

01/25/2005

Copyright 2005 National Public Radio (R)
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National Public Radio (NPR)

SHOW: Day to Day 4:00 AM EST NPR

January 19, 2005 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Politics is exactly where evangelical Christians belong

ANCHORS: MADELEINE BRAND

BODY:

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

Among the people celebrating President Bush's second inauguration tomorrow will be thousands of religious conservatives. Yesterday on this program, we heard from minister Tony Campolo. He questioned the way some Christian evangelicals have positioned themselves in partisan politics. Today, conservative activist Gary Bauer says that's exactly where evangelicals belong, right in the middle of the political fray.

GARY BAUER:

Many of the pundits are asking: `Is the involvement of religious people in politics a good thing?' Well, the answer is yes. America is a religious nation. Ninety percent of Americans profess a belief in God, and two-thirds say they're members of a church. That's why exit polls indicate that nearly a quarter of voters felt moral values was the issue that mattered most in selecting a presidential candidate.

Clearly, the reason religion is an essential part of the political process is because it's an essential part of most Americans' lives. In fact, the political history of America can be seen as a story of people with a deep allegiance to God acting to bring about a better nation. Abraham Lincoln was a daily Bible reader and often quoted Scripture. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister whose entire mission of racial justice and civil rights was based on the tenets of his Christian faith.

Our Founding Fathers were also men of deep and committed faith. In our founding documents, they recognized that our liberties are not given to us by any president or king but by God. George Bush's religiosity isn't unusual compared to recent presidents. Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school while serving as president, and Bill Clinton talked about Jesus more often than Bush and has spoken at more churches than the president has. Even John Kerry spoke about his faith in the final weeks of his failed presidential campaign, emphasizing the fact that he was a former altar boy.

I suspect the reason why the left declares that religion has become too involved in politics has everything to do with the fact that conservative Christians, who are pro-life and support traditional values, have established themselves as a formidable force in politics. Christians now more than ever are realizing that authentic faith must inform voting decisions and public policy debates. A belief in God and a commitment to the principles of our Judeo-Christian tradition--principles like hard work, personal responsibility and social justice--are what the country was founded on and they're the secret to our prosperity.

Today, we live in a time of terrorist threats and tsunamis, an era when materialism and the culture of death threaten to tear apart the very fabric of the American family, and yet some people still suggest that religion has become too much a part of our political life. Religion matters in American politics because the majority of Americans--people who go to church on Sunday, to work on Monday and in the voting booth on Tuesday--believe in a God more powerful than themselves. It matters because the vast majority of Americans want honorable leaders who profess a belief in a God who will someday hold them accountable for their actions in this world.