We Are Asking Politicians the Wrong Religious Questions

Most politicians claim their policies are rooted in the Bible. It's time to start asking what they mean.

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“We need God in society. We’re free because God endowed us with inalienable rights. That’s why America was founded. Our Constitution was created not to give us those rights but to protect the rights God already bestowed on us. That was the founders’ central insight.”

Ron DeSantis said that, deigning to throw a little red meat to the Christian crowd in an effort to salvage his flailing presidential aspirations from the gaping maw of apathy. DeSantis is clearly feeling some type of way about the evangelicals, who are the only road to the GOP nomination in town. As a beefy Florida Republican, DeSantis is in the evangelical world but he is not of it. He comes from Catholic stock, something he only admitted to CBN with excruciating effort, looking like he was being forced to pick his own wedgie on live TV. 

So, DeSantis needs to convince the evangelicals that he’s one of them even though he’s Catholic. Not exactly a dealbreaker. Evangelicals have proved pretty flexible on that front, so long as the guy in question brings enough to the table. And, anyway, what even is an evangelical these days? It’s less about actual doctrine than vibes, right? 

Maybe so. But this is where I really think the news media needs to do for evangelicals what evangelicals won’t do for themselves, and start pushing DeSantis and his ilk on religion questions. We’ve gotten so used to Christianity being coded as inherently Republican that we’ve lost all sight of how to interrogate Republicans when they use Christian rhetoric as the foundation of their policy positions.