How religion affects the 2016 Republican primary
As Pope Francis addresses political leaders Thursday at the Capitol before making his way to Philadelphia, another event is playing out that for decades has prompted a public examination of faith in America: the Republican presidential campaign.
As Pope Francis addresses political leaders Thursday at the Capitol before making his way to Philadelphia, another event is playing out that for decades has prompted a public examination of faith in America: the Republican presidential campaign.
During the 2012 campaign, GOP nominee Mitt Romney's Mormon faith drew attention, while runner-up Rick Santorum, a Catholic, surged as a social-issues crusader. In 2008, Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor, carried the Iowa caucuses after stirring fervor with evangelical Christians.
Among 2016 contenders, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush promoted his presence at a Mass celebrated Wednesday by Francis, by tweeting a photo from outside the church.
Gov. Christie, also a Catholic, is among candidates expected to attend the pope's Thursday address to Congress. Christie also is set to attend Sunday's papal Mass in Philadelphia - but, like a number of Republican rivals, has distanced himself from what he has termed the pope's "public policy" positions.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump has said the pope "seems like a pretty good guy."
Trump's emphasis on immigration and the economy has resulted in "less focus on faith and issues related to faith," said Geoffrey Layman, a University of Notre Dame political science professor.
A Presbyterian, Trump said at an Iowa event in the summer that he had never asked God for forgiveness. But at church, he said, "I drink my little wine . . . and I eat my little cracker. I guess that's a form of asking forgiveness."
Asked in a Bloomberg interview to name a favorite Bible verse, Trump declined, describing the topic as "very personal." But he has called the Bible his favorite book and proclaimed that "I love God."
"To the degree that he is religious, it's not a traditional kind of faith. . . . He doesn't seem to be particularly devout," Layman said. "That is something that is quite different for the Republican Party."
Christian conservative leaders, however, say faith-driven voters aren't losing sway.
"In some ways, they're being heard more than in the past several cycles," said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He noted attention "across the spectrum" of the crowded GOP field to issues such as public funding of Planned Parenthood and an elected Kentucky clerk's refusal to grant marriage licenses to gay couples.
While religious conservatives have yet to coalesce around a candidate, that hasn't diminished their clout, Moore said.
"It's better if there are multiple candidates who are in conversation with evangelicals and other social conservatives," Moore said, rather than "having one candidate who is seen as the evangelical candidate and everyone else just focuses on talking about tax rates."
Though white evangelicals are still a core constituency for the GOP - 68 percent lean Republican, according to an April Pew Research Center report - "conservative evangelicals have largely lost the mystique of being kingmakers for Republican nominees," said Steven P. Miller, author of The Age of Evangelicalism.
Following the rise of the so-called religious right in the early 1980s, "ever since George H.W. Bush won the nomination in 1988 . . . there has been a sense that even the most established candidate needs to protect the party's evangelical flank," Miller said.
After Democrat John Kerry lost to Republican George W. Bush in 2004, Democrats worried about closing "the God gap," Miller said. But since President Obama's election in 2008, he said, Democrats no longer see evangelicals as an electoral threat.
"Still, evangelical support clearly can bolster or keep afloat a primary campaign," Miller said, pointing to the candidacies of former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and, "to a lesser extent," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Asked at a news conference this month what distinguished him from Trump, Carson said: "The biggest thing is that I realize where my success has come from, and I don't any way deny my faith in God." (Trump fired back: "I don't think [Carson's] a great religious figure.")
Trump has spoken of Christians being "under attack" - a sentiment shared by some religious conservatives.
"When you're dealing in the world of politics, the enemy of your enemy is your friend," said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, a socially conservative group in Iowa. "Donald Trump has been the enemy of establishment politics."
Vander Plaats said Trump "has emphasized his love for the Bible" and taken stances backed by social conservatives.
David Domke, a communications professor at the University of Washington who has studied public expressions of religion in American politics, said Christian conservatives may not wield the same influence as in the past in selecting the Republican nominee, but the crowded primary field gives candidates incentive to court their vote.
Even contenders who might not be favored by religious conservatives don't want to alienate that base, Domke said. "That's why you see Trump saying things like 'God is the ultimate' " - a phrase Trump used in a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Some candidates are using Francis' visit to talk about faith.
Bush, who was baptized an Episcopalian and converted to Catholicism, described Tuesday how the church "has always bound my own family together" in a CNN commentary titled "How Catholic Faith Changed My Life." The church, he said, "grounded me and my beliefs in a deep way of thinking about mercy, penance, and the dignity and potential of every life."
Bush also said that while "the pundits would like to make [the pope] out to be a politician," his charge as a spiritual leader "is much greater than that."
Francis' call for action on topics like climate change and income inequality have drawn dissent from Republican candidates. Santorum, for instance, has called for "leaving science to the scientists."
On Francis' push for the United States to normalize relations with Cuba, Christie said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, "I just think the pope is wrong," adding that "the pope's infallibility is on religious matters, not political ones."
In a radio interview Wednesday with Laura Ingraham, Christie said that at times he disagrees with the pope "vehemently."
"But that doesn't diminish for me, as a Catholic, his importance . . . what he's trying to do from a faith perspective for Catholics around the world," Christie said.
Steve Schmidt, a GOP strategist who advised the 2008 campaign of Arizona Sen. John McCain, said there is a media "misunderstanding" that being the most overtly religious candidate is a prerequisite for winning the Republican nomination.
But, he said, being seen with the pope doesn't hurt.
"All politicians try to align themselves with a figure the stature of the pope," Schmidt said. "The pope transcends politics."
856-779-3232@maddiehanna