What should be the voice of religion in the public debate, and its role in the public square?
One camp, deeply suspicious of religion, believes it should be separated from the state by an impregnable wall. Let religious people do what they do away from the public eye and keep them out of the political arena. It’s a camp of self-described atheists and people who believe religion is an entirely private matter, not to be discussed in public.
Another camp is intent on making the United States a Christian nation in which a particular kind of generic, conservative Protestantism, and the social norms it holds, would be endorsed by law and taught in public schools. There should be no separation between their church and state. Theirs should be the most prominent place in the public square, and they should have the loudest voice.
The media, as usual, is captivated by the two extremes and wants to force everyone into one camp or the other, but American attitudes resist being categorized as one or the other.
An October 2022 Pew research report was summarized in the following chart.
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October 2022 Pew research report chart
Where does that leave us? I think we first have to state without equivocation that the role of the church, as the body of Christ, in the public square cannot be driven by opinion polls or the particular political desires of this or that party. It must be inspired and led by scripture, tradition that has stood the test of time, and fact-based reason. Our Lord instructed people, not states; God saves and guides peoples, not countries. Nevertheless, God’s people are commanded to live as best they can into the ways of godly justice, loving God, neighbor, and self. It means that Christians cannot help but have a voice in the public square.
The public square is the arena in which people work out the norms and conditions by which they agree to live together, and that’s politics. It goes far beyond candidates, elections, and the legislative process. They are subsets of the much bigger question: what sort of people do we want to be in the collective life we have? It’s a remarkable question because so few people at any time in history have had the freedom to ask the question and collectively decide the answer. Most people in most places live under conditions imposed on them by a few others who are powerful enough, violent enough, and rich enough to do it.
The church needs to be visible and audible in the public square no matter what form of government its people live under, but here in the United States, it has both a right and a responsibility to be visible and audible on issues that involve oppression, suppression, equality, and godly justice—held at arm’s length from social norms and cultural biases. In other words, it must have something to say about public policy. Whatever it says must be consistent with what Jesus taught and commanded, seconded by the prophets and epistles. The visibility and audibility of the church have a certain triune face to it. One is the church as an institution; the second is the church as preacher, priest, and pastor. Third is the church as each Christian behaving and speaking in ways that illuminate the kingdom of God that is near at hand. The church is a public expression of a public faith in the public arena. It is not a private affair. It must seek to influence public attitudes, behaviors, and policies in godly directions, but it can never be the agent of secular law, nor may it do anything to impose its beliefs on others.
What of other religions and their voices? They, too, have wisdom to share and something to teach us. In American democracy, they should feel safe and comfortable taking their places in the public square, where they can be seen and heard. Nothing they offer can diminish our Christian faith. To the contrary, what they offer may strengthen it while contributing to the good of secular society as a whole.
Author’s note: Blind Guy typing does not know why the chart in his draft failed to get reproduced in the published text