Professor keeps tabs on 'God talk'
Dr. Brian Kaylor authored
"Presidential Campaign Rhetoric
in an Age of Confessional Politics.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney wears his Mormon faith on his
sleeve. Fellow Republican contender and Texas Gov. Rick Perry launched
his bid for the White House at a massive prayer rally last summer,
claiming God told him to run. Newt Gingrich, author of "Rediscovering
God in America," has resurrected his candidacy in part by talking openly
about his conversion to Catholicism. Even President Obama, a Democrat
who brought a spiritual advisor on board during his 2008 run amid rumors
that he was a Muslim, has been known to use the pulpit to try to align
himself with Christian voters, stating at the Lighting of the National
Christmas Tree ceremony last month that Jesus' teaching "lies at the
heart of my Christian faith."
Indeed "God talk" has become
firmly entrenched in American presidential campaigns, according to Dr.
Brian T. Kaylor, assistant professor of communication studies at James
Madison University and author of the 2011 book "Presidential Campaign
Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics."
"Simply put,
candidates invoke God to justify their positions and political visions
because it works," says Kaylor, a one-time Baptist minister who teaches
courses in advocacy, political communication, rhetorical methods and
public speaking at JMU. This semester, he will lead a special-topics
course entitled "Communication, Religion and Politics." Kaylor also
serves as an editorial consultant for several Christian organizations
and publishes a blog, "For God's Sake, Shut Up!" which takes its name
from the title of his 2007 book subtitled "Lessons for Christians on How
to Speak Effectively and When to Remain Silent."
"Presidential
Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics," which grew out
of Kaylor's dissertation at the University of Missouri, examines
religious rhetoric as a powerful political tool in the modern era.
Drawing on thousands of stump speeches, advertisements and debates,
Kaylor points out that the candidate who talked the most about God on
the campaign trail has won each of the past nine presidential elections,
beginning with Jimmy Carter's surprise victory in 1976.
"Carter's
1976 campaign signaled a new era in presidential politics," Kaylor
says. "Here was a former Sunday school teacher who quoted scripture. I
don't think it was anything he did deliberately. He was probably just
being himself. But his aides saw that it resonated with voters and
encouraged him to continue doing it."
Carter's break with
political tradition reflected a broader shift in American society,
Kaylor says. "Religion in politics in America dates to Thomas Jefferson,
but from the country's founding to about 1960, candidates didn't talk
about their faith much," he says. That began to change with John F.
Kennedy, who, in a tight race with Richard Nixon, was forced to answer
questions about his Catholic views. Then for the first time in the early
1960s, evangelical Christians, who emphasize accepting Christ as one's
personal savior and helping spread the word of the Gospel, surpassed
mainline Protestants as the dominant religious group in America.
By
1976, the confessional style had gained a foothold in politics, and
Gerald Ford, who was reared in the "quiet works" of Protestantism and
thus not comfortable talking publicly about his faith, paid the price at
the polls. "He said during the campaign, ‘I don't wear my religion on
my sleeve,'" Kaylor says. "Fast forward to Bill Clinton, who made a
point of saying, ‘I do wear religion on my sleeve.'" Ironically, Ronald
Reagan "out-God-talked" Carter on his way to victory in the 1980
election, he says.
The rhetoric isn't likely to end anytime
soon, according to Kaylor. "There is a link in the minds of voters
between religion and morality. They'll say things like, ‘He's a
Christian, so he must be a good man.' It's comforting for a lot of
people." And it doesn't just play to the religious right, Kaylor adds.
In October, the Democratic National Committee tapped the Rev. Derrick
Harkins, a prominent African-American pastor in Washington, D.C., to
lead its faith outreach. "Both sides of the aisle see the value in it
and use it to justify their positions on a range of issues," he says,
from health care to the environment to foreign policy.
GOP
presidential candidates, meanwhile, are busy courting conservative
evangelicals as the 2012 campaign kicks into high gear. The results of
the recent Iowa caucus demonstrate the influence this key voting bloc
holds, Kaylor writes in an article for EthicsDaily.com. Self-described
"born-again" or "evangelical" Christians, who together made up 57
percent of participants in the first-in-the-nation poll, helped catapult
former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to
the front of the pack with Romney, while simultaneously damaging
Gingrich and Perry's chances and driving Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann
out of the race, he writes.
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By James Heffernan, JMU Public Affairs
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