Editorial
“First, Do No Harm”
Religion and politics are indeed a potentially lethal mix, and Touchstone’s judgments about the Democratic party have inevitably brought forth charges that the journal is blindly loyal to the Republicans. If so, it were a grievous fault.
One reason for criticizing Democrats rather than Republicans is that, with some exceptions, Republicans do not seem to have the same religious commitment to their party that many Democrats have to theirs. Touchstone’s judgments were inspired by a fascinating study1 showing that the more fervent a church member is, the more likely he is to vote Republican, while the large majority of self-described non-religious people are Democrats, with people who are anti-religious being the most Democratic of all.
Political liberalism, embodied in the Democratic party, serves as a kind of substitute religion in a way conservative ideology cannot. The political Left—from anarchists through Communists and Socialists to garden-variety meliorist liberals—possesses a certain unity, which is the dream of utopia, of making a better world through political action. Those who lose their religious beliefs, or who never had any, can find in leftist politics a great Truth to which they can commit their lives, something which gives them inherent and transcendent meaning, and which calls for sacrifice on behalf of something greater than themselves.
Conservative politics cannot serve the same purpose because it precisely denies these dreams of utopia and constantly urges that politics be kept within limited and manageable bounds, that grand schemes for social transformation are likely to result in great disasters, often not recognized until it is too late. Although some Christians devote their lives to politics, as one might to any profession, no Christian can legitimately put politics at the center of his life. But liberalism, apart from its specific tenets, demands precisely that.
The “Religious Right” is often charged with having made that same fatal mistake, and to the degree that the charge is true, it is indeed fatal. Some orthodox believers, buoyed by the Republican position on abortion, have become uncritical supporters of the party. Most, however, can say what Jerry Falwell said to explain his own entry into politics—that the state would not let believers alone; thus, it was necessary to become involved in politics as a protective measure.
Devout Christians seldom support the Republican party with the blind loyalty of some Democrats for theirs. If anything, the opposite is true, in that most serious Christians vote Republican only if Republican candidates seem to hold correct principles, and these same believers are often eager to support Democrats who also hold those principles. Rather than supporting Republicans who deny those principles, such Christians treat them as enemies.
Some free-market conservatives do seem to embrace their ideology with an almost religious fervor, the disciples of Ayn Rand (a proclaimed atheist) being the extreme example. But it is characteristic of the free market, as Adam Smith himself observed when the market was still embryonic, that it does not call forth the same passions, the same level of fervent commitment, as does religion. The market tends to foster a rather humdrum society in which individuals pursue ultimate truth in whatever ways they see fit. Impassioned devotees of the free market are rather like impassioned stamp collectors, investing their passion in an object that is not suited to receive it.
In its pure form (seldom found in the real world of politics) conservatism is a negative philosophy that enjoins on politicians what Hippocrates enjoined on physicians, “First, do no harm.” It conceives government actions as last resorts for dealing with specific needs no other agency can address, and it urges that the state withdraw once those needs have been met. In such a philosophy, whatever harm the state may do is primarily by omission, and no legitimate political program can ever inspire religious commitment.
Christians who embrace liberalism with a passion do so on humanitarian grounds that are said to be based on the gospel. Thus, some sincere believers see themselves in a predicament—abortion on the one hand, the welfare state on the other, an uncomfortable choice in which the believer may legitimately pick the latter and bristles at the claim that such a choice is morally wrong. But defining the issue in this way merely shows the degree to which political liberalism has already achieved a kind of religious status in the minds of such people.
Until the advent of modern religious liberalism, Christianity always condemned abortion and always upheld a sexual ethic centered around chastity, with legitimate sexual activity permitted only within marriage. These are not disputable claims. (More accurately, they are disputable only by falsifying the Christian history of almost two thousand years.) Thus, when the Democratic party embraces the “right” to abortion, or the legitimacy of sex outside marriage, it deliberately sets itself against Christian morality.
James Hitchcock is Professor emeritus of History at St. Louis University in St. Louis. He and his late wife Helen have four daughters. His most recent book is the two-volume work, The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Princeton University Press, 2004). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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