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Having said all that, there are reasons to view the surge of faith-based politics among Democrats with a heavy dose of sobriety and caution. For one thing, Democratic politicians grounded in traditional religious ideals still represent a small, embattled minority in the party. Their ability to move their party to the right on social issues will be extremely limited—especially with arch liberal Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House.

More ominously, it's easy to imagine how party leaders will increasingly use religious talk to help justify an essentially left-wing agenda. In this sense, the rhetoric and policies of the Reverend Al Sharpton, a religious liberal, sound a lot like those of Jim Wallis, the evangelical activist and popular Democratic adviser on religion. The appearance of "Golden Rule Democrats," their thin appeals to the Sermon on the Mount or the Book of Isaiah, the many references to "the common good"—it all threatens to become a sanctimonious seal of approval for business as usual.

That problem, of course, is not confined to the Democratic Party. Religious voices in both parties face constant temptation, it seems, to idolize politics. Despite good intentions, they're too ready to conflate the roles of church and state—and, in the end, compromise their ideals and their institutions. "If we regard our political structures as kingdoms of God, and expect through papacies and kingdoms to come closer to him, we cannot hear his word or see his Christ," Richard Niebuhr wrote in Christ and Culture. "Neither can we conduct our political affairs in the right spirit."

Every election, no matter what the outcome, gives Christians another opportunity to conduct their political affairs in this spirit.

Joseph Loconte is a distinguished visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy. This article, as with all "Speaking Out" pieces, does not necessarily represent the views of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

See today's other commentary on the election, "Good News for Democrats, Good News for Evangelicals | And Good News for the world." by George G. Hunter III.

Christianity Today editors liveblogged the election results.

More on politics is available in our full coverage area.

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November (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50