Americans are, by their own self-description, a religious people. Ninety percent claim belief in God, 70 percent claim membership in a denomination of an organized religion, 38 percent claim to be "committed Christians."
More Americans believe in angels than in evolution. Whether you're an atheist or a fundamentalist, ignoring the role of religion in American society, and how that shapes our political discourse, is wishful—if not delusional—thinking.
Sen. Barack Obama recently said, "This religious tendency is not simply the result of successful marketing by skilled preachers or the draw of popular mega-churches. In fact, it speaks to a hunger that's deeper than that—a hunger that goes beyond any particular issue or cause."
This brings us to the United Church of Christ (UCC), New England's largest Protestant denomination, holding its 26th General Synod at the Hartford Civic Center from June 22 to June 26. (A "synod" is a council of church leaders; a "general synod" is a council of the whole church). The Hartford event coincides with the 50th anniversary of the UCC, formed in 1957 from the union of the Congregational Christian Churches in America and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Speakers will include Obama, Bill Moyers, Lynn Redgrave and Marian Wright Edelman.
If the UCC had a motto, it would be something like "Christian But Not Insane." The following statement appears on the UCC Web site and sums up its perspective: "[The UCC] seeks to be Multiracial, Multicultural, Open and Affirming, and Accessible to All—A Church where everyone is welcome!"
The UCC has long been in the forefront of progressive social justice issues. Many renowned political activists are members of the UCC, including the man who nearly single-handedly revived the Democratic Party, Howard Dean.
Perhaps most tellingly, the Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is a member. The UCC believes that religious faith should play a part in American society but not impose its will on governance.
Obama, who speaks at the synod on Saturday, June 23, has been a member of Chicago's Trinity UCC since 1988, and as he has reminded people on the campaign trail, "I was elected as Illinois' senator, not Illinois' minister."
Despite the senator's wishes that it weren't so, his "religion" will be a campaign issue, just as it will be for Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and any other candidate who wants to pander to a fundamentalist "base."
Indeed, Obama's religious life came up earlier this year when Fox News aired a false report by the Washington Times about his attending an Islamic madrasah in Indonesia when he was six. The school was not a Muslim fundamentalist school, as the Times suggested. He attended the school during the four years his family lived in Indonesia. There he spent two years in a Muslim-run school and two years in a Roman Catholic-run school, experiences about which he has written.
To further point up the role of "religion" in our public discourse, the Washington Times was started by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a Korean billionaire and convicted felon who served more than a year in federal prison for tax evasion and conspiracy. Moon has proclaimed himself the Messiah ("none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent").
Though it's a tribute to Obama's restraint that he didn't pop a lawsuit on Fox News, he's being naïve to think his "religion" won't be a political issue. Thus the synod offers an opportunity for the better angels of America's religious impulses to get an airing. Christian but not insane.
Synod events will be streamed live at http://www.ucc.org/synod.
