In 1802, John Leland, a Baptist clergyman from Massachusetts, presented President Thomas Jefferson with a 1235-pound block of cheese. New England believers commissioned that \u201cMammoth Cheese\u201d to celebrate Jefferson\u2019s election. The gift also signaled appreciation for the President\u2019s support of religious freedom.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to miss the irony in a member of the clergy bestowing such a pungent blessing on a president\u2019s work to legislate separate spheres of church and state or in the fact that Leland accepted Jefferson\u2019s invitation to preach to Congress a few days later. A sermon given on the floor of Congress may fit within the bounds of religious freedom, but it hardly keeps church and state at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n
In the middle of this fall\u2019s election season, does history offer any insight for voters who count themselves part of faith traditions? Hopefully.<\/p>\n
While at least a few Baptists in the young nation approved of Thomas Jefferson\u2019s policies and the country\u2019s direction, a recent study<\/a> showed that fewer than 30 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country today. Widespread dissatisfaction, however, fails to signal broader agreement. Issues including definitions of marriage, interpretations of science, and the allocation of government spending divide voters, deeply. Divisions prompt citizens to seek companionship with likeminded Americans. Another recent study<\/a> highlighted the divide between citizens by studying their media habits: \u201cWhen it comes to getting news about politics and government, liberals and conservatives inhabit different worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, people of faith are among the nation\u2019s dissatisfied citizens, but they are also among the country\u2019s polarized constituencies.<\/p>\n Perhaps the relationship between religion and politics in the U.S. seems like it should be straightforward. The historical record, though, demonstrates that the interaction between faith and politics has been filled with irony and complexity. Rarely have American Christians agreed about the right relationship between church and state. Nor have they found common ground about the priority of issues or the right stance for believers. A few examples highlight diverse reactions.<\/p>\n In Jefferson\u2019s day, not all Christians shared the Baptists\u2019 love for the President. The Dutch Reformed minister, William Linn, feared that what he viewed as Jefferson\u2019s lack of orthodox Christian beliefs would ruin the new nation. Linn spoke boldly against the founding father\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n Later that century, Christians reacted differently to the nation\u2019s moral debates and laws. The legal enslavement of African Americans prompted the antebellum Quaker abolitionist Angelina Grimk\u00e9<\/a> to proclaim, \u201cwicked laws ought be no barrier in the way of [Christian] duty.\u201d Alternately, her southern contemporary, the Presbyterian minister George Armstrong<\/a> urged obedience to the law with his assertion that \u201cthe question of emancipation\u201d belonged \u201cto the State, and not the Church, to settle.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether to engage in the political realm proved a point of consideration in the following century too. The evangelist Billy Graham interacted with political leaders throughout his career, but also recommended Christians \u201cdevote themselves to missionary work and not get distracted by undue attention to political and social issues.\u201d Not all agreed.<\/p>\n Over the past few decades, many believers \u2013 clergy and laity alike \u2013 have taken part in protests hoping to spark change in the political realm that span a wide variety of issues. Marches and demonstrations in Washington D.C., and other cities weighed in on Civil Rights, legalized abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment. More recently, people of faith rallied around Moral Monday<\/a> demonstrations in North Carolina, joined protesters in New York to raise awareness about climate change<\/a>, and showed outrage at the shooting death of Michael Brown and police action in Ferguson, M<\/a>o. Christians turned their energies toward a variety of political issues and, at times, took opposing sides in protests. Rooted in faith convictions, each of those efforts sought to witness to and press for an alternate future.<\/p>\n Given a diversity of historical responses, how might Christians think about their vote in upcoming elections? It is clear that faith convictions shape action in the world. History makes evident, however, that it is hard to predict or define one, lone, Christian response. Deep divisions persist as Christians engage politically. Such divides often prove severe enough that they disable productive conversation, and for Christians, inhibit the unity of the church and our witness to the world.<\/p>\n Instead of viewing division as inevitable, believers might try to bridge the deep divides, or at least seek genuine conversations across them. Finding ways to be in conversation \u2013 even if not agreement \u2013 with voices (past and present) that differ might yield insight and sympathy and strengthen Christian witness. Such conversations might prompt the formation of productive communities of discernment as believers navigate the modern world.<\/p>\n As a historian of American Christianity, I commend the study of history as a helpful background as we consider how faith shapes politics in upcoming elections. Wade through the diversity of beliefs of the nation\u2019s founders with John Fea\u2019s Was America Founded as a Christian Nation<\/em><\/a>. Or, for those interested in more recent conversation partners, jump into the fray of Christianity and politics in the twentieth century by travelling through the development of conservative Christian engagement in the political realm with Daniel K. Williams\u2019s God\u2019s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right<\/em><\/a> or trace the alternate witness of socially minded Protestants in David R. Swartz\u2019s Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Better yet, believers might talk face-to-face with someone they disagree with about an election or issue \u2013 and not just other Christians engaged with others in the community. There is value in relationship. There is wisdom to be gained by listening to voices from the past and the present and working to see if we can understand the logic behind one another\u2019s convictions. It may not change our votes, but relationship and conversation just might change the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Rev. Dr. Heather Hartung Vacek is assistant professor of church history at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. <\/em>Her research focuses on the historical relationship between Christian belief and practice in the American context. Dr. Vacek\u2019s most recent work explores Protestant reactions to mental illnesses from the colonial era until the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1802, John Leland, a Baptist clergyman from Massachusetts, presented President Thomas Jefferson with a 1235-pound block of cheese. New England believers commissioned that \u201cMammoth Cheese\u201d to celebrate Jefferson\u2019s election. The gift also signaled appreciation for the President\u2019s support of religious freedom. 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