c. 2006 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

(UNDATED) Former Sen. John Danforth is no stranger to the idea of religion playing a role in politics. After all, during his three terms as a Republican senator from Missouri, and then a diplomat, he remained an active Episcopal priest.

But now, Danforth believes that religion has become a divisive force in American political life. He puts the blame squarely on the conservative religious influence in his own Republican party.

“Now there is a blatant appeal, particularly in the Republican Party, to members of the Christian right; it’s considered the base of the Republican Party,” he told the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.”

“I don’t think this is good for my party,” he added. ”I don’t think it’s good for the country.”

Danforth, 70, said the pivotal moment for him came in 2005 during the intense national debate over whether life support should be withdrawn for Terri Schiavo. He said he was horrified to watch religious activists pressure Republican members of Congress to intervene _ something he felt was none of the federal government’s business.

“That was to me the 2-by-4 that hit me over the head,” he said. “I had not been that aware of the implications of religion and politics until the Terri Schiavo case, and then everything else fell into place after that.”

In his new book, “Faith and Politics,” Danforth criticizes the GOP for focusing on issues such as abortion and gay marriage at the expense of other issues. And he slams conservative Christians for pushing what he believes is an inappropriate religious agenda.

“Church people should speak out on behalf of reconciliation as opposed to emphasizing all of these wedge issues that in the name of religion tend to split us apart,” he said.

Asked why abortion rather than poverty or Social Security reform is a “wedge issue,” Danforth said a wedge issue is one “designed for the express purpose of energizing a political base.”

“The base of the Republican Party has become the Christian right,” he said. “And they have a series of issues that are important to them that are not necessarily important to the future of the country. At least I don’t think they are.”

Still, Danforth acknowledged that people with strong convictions about issues they see as moral issues should be free to engage in political advocacy “and do so energetically and do so forcefully.”

But, he added, “it’s also important, I think, for Christians to have a sense of humility and an understanding that they don’t monopolize God’s truth.”

Danforth dismisses conservative critics who say his current stance is motivated by frustration that his political priorities are no longer embraced by the majority of his party.

“I’m not asking that any particular point of view that I have wins,” he said. “I’m just saying that somehow we’ve got to come together sufficiently so that we keep the country glued together and that we’re able to deal with energy and terrorism, and the budget and Social Security and Medicare and all these difficult issues.”

Danforth said his work as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and then as President Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, showed him what can happen when religion is used for extreme political ends.

“It’s clear that when you look at conflicts around the world _ in Sudan, in Iraq, in Kashmir, wherever _ religion is often a significant part of that conflict,” he said. “The people kill each other because they think God wants them to kill each other.”

At the same time, Danforth is willing to take stands on controversial public issues and to employ religious reasoning as a justification. In Missouri, he’s actively campaigning in support of Amendment Two, a measure on this fall’s ballot that would change the state constitution to explicitly allow embryonic stem cell research.

In a public service announcement backing the measure, Danforth notes that he voted “pro-life” throughout his political career, adding, “ … and that is exactly why I favor the stem cell initiative. I believe in saving life.”

Danforth said that healing disease is “something that has a clear religious component. I mean the ministry of Jesus was to heal people who were suffering.”

Asked how a politician balances personal beliefs with constituents who may believe something completely different, Danforth said it is important for people who have deep religious views “to wear their tolerance on their sleeve and to make it clear that in our eyes, we’re all God’s people.

“It’s an act of religious pride to try to identify what I think with God’s will,” he said. “I try to do God’s will; I pray that I will know and do God’s will, but I know I’m always going to fall short.”

He warns that the religious left can also wrongly presume to speak for God.

“While the real problems come from the religious right, namely their claim that they have an agenda, it’s not impossible that the religious left becomes the mirror image of the religious right, and it seems to me that’s something to watch.”

KRE/JL END LAWTON

Editors: To obtain photos of Danforth, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

A version of this story first appeared on the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.” This article may be reprinted by RNS clients. Please use the Religion & Ethics Newsweekly byline.