My friend Richard Parker describes himself as a seventh-generation Episcopalian. This scholar, now in his late 50s, grew up in Southern California, the son of an Episcopal priest and pastor. In recent years, my friend has served as a member of the vestry at his place of worship, Christ Church in Cambridge.
Trained as an economist, Richard Parker lectures on public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. By contrast with many other academics, he takes a serious interest in religion, both for his personal life and for its role in the public sphere.
In a recent talk to churchgoers at Harvard, Prof. Parker shared his conviction that religion has long been and continues to be a powerful force for social justice in American life. Those who think otherwise are ignoring a prime fact of our history and national character, he believes.
Some people associate religion in America with backwardness on issues of race and prejudice. But this is plainly wrong. Dr. Parker considers religion as a strong progressive force, keeping America moving forward toward greater social justice and the ideal of equal rights for all.
Pollsters continue to be amazed by the extent of religious belief and practice among Americans. Some 90 percent say they believe in God, and fewer than one percent call themselves atheists. Not even Ireland approaches such figures.
Yet recent times have seen a steep decline in numbers of those belonging to the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and other mainline Protestant churches. This phenomenon has led some to call this the end of the Protestant era in America. However, for Prof. Parker, it is by no means the beginning of a post-religion era, only a time of realignments.
Some Protestant churches may continue to decline, but other groups have flourished. Currently mainline Protestant churches form one-quarter of our overall religious population, evangelicals another quarter, Roman Catholics a quarter, with Jews, Muslims, and others filling out the whole. In all, an estimated 1500 to 1800 religious denominations can be found in America, exhibiting an astonishingly wide variety of belief and practice.
The religious scene changed notably in the 1960s with the candidacy of the Catholic John Kennedy. His campaign pushed into public view the question of how free he would be to make decisions over against the authority of his church. The solution made then by Kennedy and his advisors was to assert that his religion was a private matter that would never lead to any such conflict.
That was a mistaken solution, according to Richard Parker who believes that religion cannot be removed from the public square. In time, Kennedy’s election and service as president came to lessen prejudice against Catholics and to accord to them a full place in American life. Ultimately, something of the same would happen for Jews and others.
When the Moral Majority came along in the 1970s, new battles were fought in the name of religion. Religion became what Parker calls “a proxy for the debate about race and region that has been going on since the 18th century.” But this movement, a kind of replay of the Civil War, failed and the Moral Majority lost influence.
Prof. Parker judges that those religious groups which have opposed progress in race relations, gender issues, and inter-religious connections have not succeeded in their efforts to turn back the clock. By his reckoning, both the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition have fallen far short of their goals and must be judged failures.
The Moral Majority declared bankruptcy in 1978 after having failed in efforts to recruit conservative Catholics and Jews. For its part, the Christian Coalition has also come upon hard times financially. Ultimately, both proved to be regional movements rather than truly national organizations.
For those who espouse a progressive approach to politics, this speaker offers cheering words. To his mind, the struggle for racial justice and other social goods has been a great success. The forces of reaction can seem powerful but, he asserts, they have actually been in retreat for a long time.
Religion still matters, Dr. Parker asserts, and the mainline message of the American Protestant tradition has taken firm hold in our public life. “You can be both progressive and religious, as Americans have been for 300 years,” says this man of faith and of unabashed commitment to what he regards as progressive politics in keeping with the American spirit.
Richard Griffin