c. 2000 Religion New Service

(David P. Gushee is director of the Center for Christian Leadership and associate professor of Christian Studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)

(UNDATED) Al Gore’s selection of Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate has shattered one of the oldest and most significant barriers in American public life. Whether the Democratic ticket actually wins the election this November, the months to come will offer significant lessons in the role of religion in American politics and culture.

The presidency and vice presidency of the United States have without exception been held by white men throughout our 224-year history. These offices have also been held exclusively by white men who have been at least nominally Christian, and all but one _ John F. Kennedy _ have been Protestant Christians.

While our nation prides itself these days on its inclusivity, and for some time has been one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse civilizations known to man, access to power has been a different matter altogether.

The power structure of American life has been dominated by Protestant white men from our very beginning. Here is where the needed money, connections, family names, education and other resources have been found. The political ascent of George W. Bush and Al Gore, whatever else one may say about these candidates, reflects this classic pattern.

There is a symbolic dimension to the office of the presidency and vice presidency. Holders of these positions represent the nation both to itself and to the world. Voters tend to look for candidates who in some way reflect our idealized image of ourselves.

It has been very difficult for the dominant group in American life _ white Protestants _ to imagine that anyone other than other white Protestants could symbolically represent them at the highest level of politics.

Lieberman is Jewish; in fact, an Orthodox Jew. This means he holds to the strictest version of religious practice found in the sharply divided landscape of contemporary Jewish life. Like all Orthodox Jews, he seeks to adhere to Jewish Law as taught in the Hebrew Bible and interpreted by the authoritative rabbinic tradition.

Among the most obvious distinctives of this way of life include a ban on travel and work on the Jewish Sabbath and High Holy Days and adherence to Jewish dietary laws. Lieberman also attempts to live by the moral code of the Hebrew Bible and to bring those convictions to bear in public life.

Crossing the Christian-Jewish religious divide in a vice presidential pick is a historic move. Selecting an Orthodox Jew is even more significant, because the ancient practices of Orthodox Jewish life are strikingly and stubbornly countercultural. Indeed, they pose special, though not insurmountable, difficulties for anyone attempting to undertake the 24 hours-a- day, seven days-a-week responsibilities of a vice president or, consider this, a president.

It will be interesting to see if the Lieberman pick will arouse the anti-Semitism that remains latent in American life.

Those with a sense of history will know how inconceivable the selection of a Jew for vice president would have been in this country even 40 years ago. American racists historically have counted Jews among those whom they reject. Many country clubs, colleges and businesses either did not welcome Jews or set quotas on Jews until relatively recently.

Whether there are Americans who simply will not vote for Gore because of his Jewish running mate remains to be seen. We can hope it’s not many.

Just 55 years ago, the Holocaust ended. Over 6 million Jews were the victims of the most thoroughgoing anti-Semitism ever seen on the planet. The Jewish people survived their greatest catastrophe, however, and live on.

According to the Scripture they are the people whom God selected from among all the peoples of the world to be his own, and all Christians are their spiritual heirs. Let us hope that Christians in this political season will offer appropriate respect to one representing our Elder Brother in the family of faith.

DEA END GUSHEE