Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. Faith in government is belief despite all evidence to the contrary.
The issue of religious faith is once again a major factor in the Republican primary. Mitt Romney just delivered a stem-winding speech on religion and politics at Texas A&M that has many pundits likening him to JFK. Mike Huckabee is now the GOP front-runner in Iowa, owing in no small part to his background as a Baptist minister and his subsequent appeal the religious right.
All of this predictable attention to religion in GOP politics has turned my thoughts to the inadequacy of labels – particularly with regard to the term “Christian conservative.” The media constantly tell us that evangelicals make up a large portion of the Republican Party’s base, and I do not dispute the fact. Deeply religious people have clearly found a home in the GOP, but aligning oneself with the Republican Party does not necessarily make one a conservative. In fact, I would claim that the term “Christian conservative” is a misnomer when applied to individuals who are willing to use the political process to spread certain values throughout American society. At its heart, this is a very liberal and even un-Christian notion. Perhaps a better term would be “Christian Republicans” or “Big-Government Republicans.”
The confusion derives from the inadequacy of the term “conservative.” On the one hand, the term can refer to an attitude regarding social mores. This is what is usually meant when referring to the religious right – those with a predilection to turn to the federal government to support certain religiously-based values and attitudes. On the other hand, the term can also mean a political preference for strict constructionism and limited government. This is the brand of conservative that believes the federal government should be limited to its strictly defined Constitutional role. Using the same term to describe two groups with such divergent attitudes is problematic at best.
Although the GOP has traditionally managed to bring adherents from both camps under a big tent, I don’t expect that trend to continue for much longer. In fact, I see the rift between them widening, and I suspect that these two views will ultimately prove to be irreconcilable. Come November ‘08, the Republicans may realize that they have courted the religious right at the expense of libertarian-leaning conservatives and even many independent voters. Once these disaffected small-government voters hand the GOP a stinging defeat at the polls next year, Republicans might rediscover their principles. Who knows? They may even start sounding less like preachers and more like real conservatives.
