Nonconventional Religion in my Politics?!

Last year in the United States, we reelected Barack Obama to the presidency.  The race between the democratic Obama and Republican Mitt Romney was just as tumultuous as any election.  Both sides galvanized against each other, sometimes stooping to mudslinging techniques and sensationalized news about the opponent.  One issue that both sides used against each other is religion.  In the 2012 election, Obama was accused (wrongly) by a lot of opposition of being a Muslim, whereas Romney is a practicing Mormon.

                The accusations against Obama stem from his parentage.  Very weak associations with Islam in his family led to viral accusations in the vein of “The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!”.  The rumors against Obama have been rationalized as false, but the fact that they ever came up in the first place will be remembered for a long time to come (Emery, 2013).

                As for Romney, his status as a Mormon has never been hidden.  But it did provide a way for opposition to pick on him during the campaign.  Journalist Katie Glueck describes one instance when Romney went on a talk show to discuss his platform, and found himself defending his religion instead.  “I’m not running to talk about Mormonism,” Romney said, becoming visibly irritated with the host for focusing on something that the presidential candidate did not think should be important to the election (Glueck, 2012).

                This is not unusual in United States elections.  The vast majority of presidents have been Protestants.  In fact, John F. Kennedy is still the first and only US president to have been a Catholic, and even he did not win it without a fight.  Many Protestants in the country worried that Kennedy would be too beholden to the Vatican and try to establish Catholicism as a national religion.  It required a lot of expertly-written speeches and campaign spending to earn Kennedy a very close win (J.F.K. Library).

                The dominant culture in this case is the Protestant population of the US, which does have a long history as a vocal majority in the country.  Martin and Nakayama (2013) discuss the way a dominant culture, when dealing with other nondominant cultures, will use language to establish and enforce their own worldview.  Indeed, just the thought that a politician might pray to Allah instead of God (both words for the same deity, according to many religious scholars) leads people to lose their minds.  The fact that Mormonism was once viewed as a “cult” (a word with heavily negative connotations) fueled severe criticism from Mitt Romney’s opposition.  In a cultural space as diverse as the United States, this mindset is childish at best, and destructive at worst.  Romney put it best when he scolded people for focusing on his religion instead of his platform; we don’t elect religions, we elect platforms.

                The language of Protestantism nearly cost JFK his presidential race, and it has irrevocably besmirched Obama’s name in the eyes of many.  The labels placed on other religions express worries that they may claim too much of a politician’s attention and motives.  The very public social positions of politicians ensure that their religion will always be considered by their constituents, even though this country has no established religion.

References

Emery, D. (2013). Is Barack Obama a Muslim?  About.com.  Retrieved from http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_barack_obama_muslim.htm

Glueck, K. (2012, November 6). Mitt Romney Mormon video goes viral. Politico. Retrieved from  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83310.html

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. 

John F. Kennedy and Religion.  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  Retrieved from http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-and-Religion.aspx