The presidential primary season is in full swing. Iowa and New Hampshire, states that dominated the news for months, are history. So is Michigan. Most eyes are now focused on South Carolina and Florida. Then comes Super Tuesday — Feb. 5 — when voters in 22 states, including Alabama, will join the process of selecting the candidate to carry their party’s banner into the general election Nov. 4.
An issue running through all the campaigns concerns the role of what media pundits call “values voters.” Mostly these are people of faith, primarily Christians, who are concerned about certain social issues facing our nation. Abortion, the definition of marriage, homosexuality are but three of the issues values voters care about, according to various polls.
But the involvement of people of faith in the presidential campaign has produced an odd reaction. From some quarters has come the cry of foul. Claiming to be champions of separation of church and state, these voices argue that values voters — a synonym for religious voters — are trying to impose their values on society.
These voices seem oblivious to the fact that it is not the Christian voters who have campaigned in recent decades to overturn long-held values of marriage and family, for example. As recently as the 1980s, no one was seriously considering changing the definition of marriage to include couples of the same gender.
Laws reflect collective values
If anyone is trying to impose a value system on the nation, is it not those who are trying to replace the traditional moral positions of American society with a new, more permissive set of values?
However, the debate today is not about “imposing” a value system on society. Our nation is much too large, much too pluralistic, for any one group to “impose” its value system on all others. But our nation lives and functions under a system of laws that apply to all residents, and those laws reflect the collective values of the nation as determined through our political system.
Because the debate is so important, all voices must be heard including the voices of values voters.
One has only to look at our nation’s history to see the important role of values voters. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, values voters were at the forefront of major social reform movements. It was values voters who championed the 40-hour workweek. It was values voters who led the reform efforts in child labor laws. It was values voters who campaigned for programs to benefit the poor.
Baptist pastor Walter Rauschenbusch was but one person of faith who led these and other similar causes. He was joined by priests from the Roman Catholic tradition and other noted leaders from numerous Christian groups.
These champions of social reform pleaded with the collective moral conscious of the United States for laws that reflected a value system based on opportunity and compassion rather than exploitation and greed. And they won.
A half-century ago, it was people of faith who stepped out of the churches and onto the streets to fight another moral and social evil — racial discrimination. The result was sweeping changes in the laws of this nation, laws that put into practice the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal.
The debate going on today is in the tradition of the best of religious history. Christian believers are going into the public square and contending for what they believe best for the United States. It is not imposing a moral code on anyone. It is helping the nation reflect in its laws those values that the majority of Americans deem wisest and best for society.
Majority’s will is not absolute
Individuals who identify with the “religious right” have the freedom to vigorously contend for values important to them. Those who hold different values have every right to argue for a different position.
But no one has the right to exclude either group, or any group, from the debate about the values that will be reflected in the laws of the United States.
Thankfully, in this nation, the will of the majority is not absolute. Every citizen is guaranteed certain rights that not even the majority can take away. Among those rights is the freedom of religion. But freedom of religion does not allow an individual or a group to use the power of the state to advance religious positions or values.
Likewise the state cannot use the power of the church to coerce compliance with a policy of the government. Separation of church and state is designed to protect the church from the state and the state from the church. It was never designed to keep God out of government. That is an impossibility. Yet some people seem to think that if one believes in God, one has no right to speak about public policy.
That is simply absurd.
Values voters should get involved
Christian people — values voters — should be involved in the debates going on in the presidential primaries. Practically every issue has moral overtones, not only abortion, gay “marriage” and homosexuality but also war, immigration, global warming, health care, poverty and much, much more.
As any Alabama Baptist knows, not every person of faith has the same position on every moral question. Yet we all have the responsibility to search the Bible for guidance and understanding and then to apply the Scripture principles we learn to the issues facing our beloved nation.
Alabama’s presidential primary is Feb. 5. I hope you will make your values known as you participate in the primary process and as you cast your primary ballot.
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