Religious Influence in Politics

In Kurt Andersen’s ‘Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire’, Andersen presented his ideas on how and when the GOP became increasingly unhinged and how crucial a role religion played in it. The root of the problem was that beginning in the 1990s, the unhinged members of the right increased in size and influence, which marginalized moderates and lead the whole of the party to become more open to make-believe in its politics and policy. In my post, I want to focus on how religion has played a detrimental role in American politics.

Despite 3 in 10 Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated Christians make up 88% of Congress, one possible explanation for this is that it has become more common for politicians to overstate their religious practices or use religious language and symbols to enhance their image or attempt to appeal to their voter base. Research has shown that voters who are more religious tend to favor candidates who share their religious beliefs or at least claim to identify with their religious tradition. It is interesting that this behavior is not unique to any one particular political group because it shows how religion has become so significant across the entire political scope, and it is concerning to me how much it shapes our political discourse.

And while religion, particularly Christianity, itself is not the cause of the bigotry, intolerance, and discrimination we see in society, we have seen how rather than embracing the virtues of compassion and inclusivity that many religions espouse, too many vocal and influential members of the GOP have used religion as a thin veil to justify their own hateful ideas. Whether it's anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, anti-immigrant policies and ideas, or discriminatory voter suppression laws, these agendas are commonly framed as the GOP doing what is ‘righteous’ or what upholds their perversion of Christianity represents. It is very popular in politics to spread a 'us vs them' mentality in order to generate solidarity between politicians and their voters and framing opposing political groups as 'Christian' vs 'nonchristian' or 'good' vs 'bad' has made it so the division between opposing political groups continues to grow.

The American political climate has become increasingly polarized, there is less and less room in politics for compromise and cooperation, and, as Kurt Andersen pointed out, there is a stubborn unwillingness to consider alternative perspectives. The animosity between Democrats and Republicans has grown significantly over the past few decades, with multiple studies showing that both sides have become increasingly radicalized with a decrease in political moderates and more and more members of both sides holding increasingly negative opinions of the other side. This unwillingness to hear the other side out or accept when one wins out over the other has been shown to lead to unprecedented levels of social unrest.