Rhetoric Race and Religion
His most notable uses of religious rhetoric were not based on fundamentalist dogma, however, but on spiritual imagery that could resonate with most Americans. He was a vigorous advocate of “bi-metallism,” which would have allowed the U.S. central bank more flexibility in monetary policy that would have benefited farmers and workers. The business elite defended the gold standard. He famously declaimed: “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
For a long period in the history of the United States, Christians understood that progressive political action for structural social change was a necessary means toward the end of living out the gospel. They understood that charity would never solve the nation’s social ills. Their religious faith translated into a faith in democracy as the means to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Today the Salvation Army is hardly associated with progressive politics. But in the 1890’s, Barrington Booth, commander of the Salvation Army in the United States, said that “To right the social wrong by charity is like bailing out the ocean with a thimble… We must readjust our social machinery so that the producers of wealth become also owners of wealth.”
Many fundamentalist Christians in America in the late 19th and early 20th century were political leftists, and did not hesitate to use religious rhetoric in political support of the labor movement and legislative efforts to reign in the runaway power of corporate trusts and monopoly capital.
William Jennings Bryan was a fundamentalist Presbyterian who ran unsuccessfully three times for the presidency as the Democratic nominee. Hard to imagine today, but then he was attacked by the Republicans for being strident and public about his traditional religious beliefs.
In the ’80s, a revitalized conservative political movement allied itself with evangelical Christianity. This alliance began in earnest when fundamentalist colleges that refused to admit black students were penalized by the Internal Revenue Service, prompting a backlash against this perceived government intrusion against religion. Religion in politics became identified with fundamentalist Christian doctrine and the “pelvic issues” of opposition to abortion and homosexuality. Many political progressives abandoned religious rhetoric altogether, for fear of being identified as biblical literalists. Meanwhile, conservatives began a relentless campaign to condemn and dismantle government as the enemy of freedom. The Republican Party backed up this characterization by governing badly when in power. The result? The demoralization of the electorate. A loss of faith in democracy. And, over time, a loss of faith in faith itself. 2014 marked the lowest voter turnout in midterm elections in 72 years, at 36.3 percent of the electorate. There is a corresponding exodus from evangelical and fundamentalist churches in America as young people in particular are dropping out in record numbers. This past weekend, I had long chats with two young women who graduated from a nearby evangelical Christian college. They were so disgusted by their college’s discrimination against gays and lesbians that they have turned their backs on evangelical culture altogether.
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