{"id":298,"date":"2014-11-22T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/is-god-the-problem-with-american-politics.html"},"modified":"2014-11-22T07:39:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T07:39:00","slug":"is-god-the-problem-with-american-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/11\/is-god-the-problem-with-american-politics.html","title":{"rendered":"Is God The Problem With American Politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u201cYou\u2019re the anti-Christ, you will be destroyed,\u201d screamed an incensed heckler<\/a> during a speech by Barack Obama in June this year. It was not the first time Obama had heard this very pointed line, nor was he the first President to hear it.\n

Anti-Obama rallies are often decorated with signs or t-shirts carrying overtly religious messages, whether it\u2019s likening him to the Devil, demanding that Christian prayers be returned to schools or suggesting that America has a divine mission \u2013 one the \u201cMuslim\u201d in the White House is currently derailing.<\/p>\n

These remain in a minority. Populist movements such as the Tea Party are predominantly concerned with economic issues, and most signs and banners reflect that \u2013 but it is a notable difference from the UK and Western Europe that anti-government rallies include any religious motifs at all.<\/p>\n

Despite polling showing a waning in religion\u2019s influence in the US, the country remains one of the most devout in the Western world, an outlier amongst the secular, industrialised democracies, with more than 50% of Americans saying that religion is important to them<\/a>, almost three times as many<\/a> as most of Western Europe.<\/p>\n

Centuries of bloodshed over God finally persuaded Europeans to extricate religion from political life. The US experience ran counter, with religion and politics becoming inextricably fused, pushed together during the 20th century by the preaching of Billy Graham, the \u201cgood versus evil\u201d framing of the Cold War and the end of the self-imposed exile of the evangelical right.<\/p>\n

As the German sociologist Hans Joas noted, \u201cThe more secularised large parts of Europe became, the more exotic the religiosity of the United States seemed to European observers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to today: an America in crisis \u2013 limp, hobbled and unable to function. All but the opening act of Obama\u2019s six-year vignette has been mired in political dysfunction, the tribes parting as Republicans retreated to an ideological hinterland formerly the redoubt of biblical literalists, economic fantasists and men with too many guns and too little life experience. <\/p>\n

Last October, Republicans courted global economic calamity by failing to pass legislation to appropriate sufficient funds to pay America\u2019s international debts \u2013 shutting down the government for two weeks<\/a>, a bizarre act of retribution against the President, enacted by the Tea Party-wing of the GOP for his attempt to reform healthcare.<\/p>\n

The current (113th) Congress is the least productive in modern American history<\/a>. Its divided factions passing so few pieces of legislation that is has garnered a staggering public disapproval rating of 83%<\/a>. Following the Republican victory in the recent midterm elections, the deadlock looks set to continue at least until the end of the Obama presidency, but very likely beyond for a generation.<\/p>\n

Sitting at the heart of this intransigence appears to be religion, with the Republicans, once the party of business and a strong military, morphing into an entity preoccupied with so-called \u201cChristian values.\u201d Representing this change is a new class of politician \u2013 Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz et al \u2013 emblems of an outspoken Christian political class, fused together by scripture, distrust of the federal government (even though they\u2019re part of it), a fear of Islamism and a sincere belief that the man in the White House is a demon.<\/p>\n

As Princeton historian Sean Wilentz pointed out during the presidential campaign of 2012, \u201c\u2018God\u2019s Own Party\u2019 now really is just that.\u201d<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n

Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re the anti-Christ, you will be destroyed,\u201d screamed an incensed heckler during a speech by Barack Obama in June this year. It was not the first time Obama had heard this very pointed line, nor was he the first President to hear it. Anti-Obama rallies are often decorated with signs or t-shirts carrying overtly religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs God The Problem With American Politics?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""You\u2019re the anti-Christ, you will be destroyed,\u201d screamed an incensed heckler during a speech by Barack Obama in June this year. 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