Don’t be fooled when religious themes are invoked for personal political gain | Opinion
I get a little cynical when elected officials speak about God or use religious language in their political speeches.
Like many Americans, maybe my perspective is tarnished when I challenge the sincerity of our nation’s elected officials. Most surveys show that the public also senses a credibility problem when our political leaders weaponize religious language, and specifically God’s name, to achieve political leverage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she prays for the president. U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney invoked God in his speech before the Senate as a reason he cast his vote for impeachment against President Donald Trump.
He said, “But my promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and biases aside.”
Then there was our president who said at the recent National Prayer Breakfast: “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”
Furthermore, the president said, ”As I said on Tuesday in the House Chamber, ‘In America, we don’t punish prayer. We don’t tear down crosses. We don’t ban symbols of faith. We don’t muzzle preachers and pastors. In America, we celebrate faith, we cherish religion, we lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the glory of God.”
Are politicians the only ones susceptible to invoking religious themes for their political goals? Are clergy being truthful when they stand up on the pulpit and proclaim that God speaks through them and tells them whom to vote for in an election?
The third commandment says, “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.” Is invoking God’s name for partisan political ends another example of taking God’s name in vain?
It is one thing to call upon God for spiritual guidance, or to seek God’s wisdom through Scripture to understand a social or moral problem. The prophets spoke the word of God to condemn their own government and religious leaders in ancient Israel. They were the first to accuse kings and priests of hypocrisy and of mistreating the vulnerable in the society.
Remember, the prophets quoted God but did not use God’s power to buttress their own standing. In many cases they paid dearly for speaking God’s word. They were concerned about justice and righteousness, caring for the most vulnerable populations in the society, keeping the Israelite kings and priests accountable to the word of God.
Similar to today, they too suffered the wrath of the political leadership through exile or imprisonment when they spoke truth to power.
In the book of Amos, the high priest Amaziah attacked Amos for speaking truth to power:
“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel saying: ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said:
“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile away
From his land.”
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer; go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’ ’‘ (Amos 7:10-17)
Politics has not changed that much. People of faith should resist exhibiting absolute faith to what elected leaders and clergy mean when they weaponize religious themes in their speeches.
Words can be like opioids because they often misrepresent a hidden agenda. That is why it is easy to become addicted to political rhetoric when religious themes are used. The words can confirm what we believe in a theological context, but does that automatically mean it makes good social policy?
The biblical prophets cautioned the people to believe at face value what the leaders of ancient Israel said in their speeches. In the first book of Samuel it is written, “But the LORD said to Samuel (regarding king Saul), ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’ ”
I cannot think of better advice for our times when listening to political leaders use God language. If God was not fooled by their rhetoric in biblical times, then neither should we get taken in by political language and diatribes from politicians who use religious ideology as a cynical tool to mislead their constituents.
It is one thing to condemn a religious leader or an elected official for what they do or say in public. It is another to assume we know what is in the heart or what is the intention of another person we disagree with in our political discourse, or from the pulpit.
Rabbi Brad Bloom of Hilton Head Island writes on matters of faith.