All of the pundits and consultants are unanimous
these days about what Democratic Party candidates must do to gain political
favor: emulate Republicans by wearing religion (specifically Christianity)
on their sleeves, making alliances with evangelical churches, and openly
engaging in “faith politics!” The pundits and consultants are,
of course, wrong. Yes, professing one’s heartfelt spiritual
beliefs can be a positive thing to share with voters, and Democrats will
put themselves on particularly strong turf by expressing their political
vision and goals in terms of Jesus’s own values of economic and
social justice. But it’s totally wrong to think that faith talk and
photo ops with evangelicals will be enough to convert people to the
Democratic cause. Such shallow, quick-fix thinking misunderstands what
goes on inside those megachurches that are home to millions of evangelical
Christians — including millions of lower-income working-class folks
who logically should be Democrats. While the pundits and consultants focus
on the preaching inside such churches, the congregations themselves are
filled with people who go because of the ministering that the churches
provide. Most Americans these days are struggling from
paycheck to paycheck, and they sense that no one in power — political
or corporate — gives a damn about them. In many of the megachurches,
however, they find a community that not only says “We care” but
also offers material needs that make a difference, including child care,
legal help, job searches, housing assistance, dental work, and language
classes. Labor unions used to fill this social void, as did
many of the Democratic Party’s big-city political machines of old,
delivering real service and earning true loyalty in return. The Democratic
Party’s future rests not in preaching, but in ministering —
actually delivering the goods to help the hard-hit, workaday majority of
folks who need them.
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2005.
