Religious Fear-Mongering in Presidential Politics
In the U.S. Presidential election of 1800, President John Adams, the Federalist candidate, ran the first campaign in our history that sought to stir up religious fears as a way to win votes. He painted his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican candidate, as an “infidel Deist,” whose godlessness would destroy the country. (This was hypocritical since Adams was a Unitarian who shared most, if not all, of Jefferson’s religious views and who held the conservative evangelicals whose votes he was trying to win in contempt as ignorant fools. But few voters knew this.) He also used the recent French Revolution, which had an anti-religious dimension since the French Catholic Church had supported the monarchy, as a fear tactic since it was well-known that Jefferson was a friend of France.
At the time, fears that Adams would give special privileges to some churches (especially the Presbyterians) over others caused this fearmongering to fail. The Baptists, Methodists and other evangelicals united around the infidel Jefferson out of fear of Presbyterian hegemony. And, of course, Adams’ warnings about the consequences of a Jefferson presidency did not come true.
There’s a message here about contemporary versions of such religious fear-mongering, but it is probably too obvious to spell out. Hat tip to Bob Cornwall for the video.
About
Michael L. Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. I live in Louisville, KY USA with my wife, Kate, and our two wonderful daughters. My wife, Kate, is a Baptist minister who works at a Catholic charity (the Society of St. Vincent de Paul) to provide assisted housing to homeless people. Our daughters are Molly (’95) and Miriam (’99). I am a former soldier converted to gospel nonviolence and a once (and future?) academic theologian turned peace activist, author, and peace educator. Contact me at [email protected]
The Levellers were a 17th C. movement during the English Civil War. They were a religiously-inspired political movement for democracy, human rights, justice for the poor, and peace. Their strongest leader was Richard Overton, a pacifist General Baptist influenced by Dutch Mennonites. Although I write on a wide range of topics, most often this blog deals with the intersection of faith, especially Christian faith, and work for social justice and peace. So, I have named the blog and dedicated it to the spirit of Richard Overton and the 17th C. Levellers.
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