Q&A: Religion and the Candidates
February 21, 2008
From Obama’s oratorical style, flavored with black church tradition, to voter fears about Huckabee’s overt evangelicalism, religion is woven into this presidential race. Donald Miller, a professor in the USC College, analyzes the faith of the candidates and the American public.
Q: Where do the candidates stand in relation to religion? How is that trickling down to the voters?
A: Religion is an interesting factor in this election, and I would put it within a larger framework: If you went back a generation or two, religion was supposed to be a complete non-factor. Many people thought that the world would be highly secularized by the 21st century and that it would only be a few elderly women and people who weren’t educated who would have any interest at all in religion. But that, of course, is not the case. We can look at the front page of the newspaper, and inevitably there is some story about religion, the role of religion and its influence on politics. In these primaries, everyone — or almost everyone — has been staking out their identification with religion.
At one level, Barack Obama is kind of a carbon copy of Martin Luther King Jr., in terms of his speech delivery. There certainly are lots of resonances with the black church tradition when one listens to Obama.
Hillary Clinton — she is a good Methodist. I actually know one of her former Sunday school teachers, and religion has been an important part of Clinton’s life. She is able to utilize that reservoir when appropriate; however, certainly not to the same extent as a Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee wears his religion on his sleeve, which is what attracts the evangelical vote. At the same time, this overt religiosity frightens many people, even more than Mitt Romney’s Mormonism did when he was still in the race.
Religion is an important factor, particularly for the Republican Party. Those on the extreme right of the Republican Party don’t find John McCain sufficiently religious or sufficiently an advocate of their views, particularly on the issues of abortion and immigration. Whether McCain can turn out the right wing of the Republican Party in the general election may be a crucial question in the outcome.
Q: Four years ago, religion was such a big issue in the election. Do you think it’s going to be as important this time? Is the public still focused on religion?
A: I think religion is a factor in this election, but I don’t think it will be the central issue. The economy is increasingly the issue that the candidates are going to have to focus on. The war is obviously a dividing point between Republicans and Democrats — particularly with McCain’s stance versus the positions that Obama and Clinton have clearly articulated.
And so will religious claims — beyond those that Mike Huckabee has made — have much influence? I’m not sure they will.
Q: Do you think that religion in politics is more of a Republican issue?
A: Historically, Jimmy Carter is the one who really introduced religion into the political conversation, at least in the last several decades, and he was Democrat. He was a Baptist. So I don’t think it’s proper to say that Republicans have the corner on religion.
And, of course, the other person for whom religion was an issue was John F. Kennedy. Then the question was whether or not our country could possibly vote for a Catholic.
So in the last several decades, religion has certainly been something people have talked about, but I don’t think it’s uniquely a Republican issue.
Donald E. Miller, a professor of religion and sociology in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is executive director of USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He holds the Leonard K. Firestone Professorship in Religion.