The way forward for Christian political engagement, according to Gerson, is a perspective that does not view America as a nation subjected to divine punishment or reward based on collective morality, but one that places the protection of human dignity at the center of policy decisions.

“Public expression of faith often reveals the deepest commitment of the faithful, and determines their image in the world,” Michael Gerson told undergraduates at Calvin College in Michigan on January 12, 2012. Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and a columnist for the Washington Post, addressed the subject in a speech entitled “Religion and Politics in a New Era.”

Gerson told students at the evangelical school that Christian political engagement is important because “at any given moment in a democracy, great issues of justice and morality are at stake.” He criticized past Christian political involvements, and he promoted a vision for the future, where Christians would utilize government power to protect human dignity.

“Politics is both a temptation and a responsibility; an addictive drug and healing medicine,” Gerson warned. Because of these risks, “reflecting on these issues is always important, [but] now I think it is urgent because we have entered a time of transition. One political theology, the model of the religious right, is passing in America, another still unformed is taking its place.” He told students how the “religious right” model accomplished some important things, such as reengaging Christians in politics after the “fundamentalist/modernist controversy” of the early 20th century, and uniting evangelical and Catholic Christians on important moral issues despite deeply rooted prejudices.

Also significant, Gerson explained, was how religious conservatives resisted secularism, as “elements of modern liberalism have contended, and still contend, that religiously motivated arguments are fundamentally private and thus illegitimate as a basis for public policy.” This “novel conception of the separation of church and state means that citizens may advocate a certain political view because of utilitarianism, liberalism, or vegetarianism, but not because of their moral views rooted in Christianity or Judaism,” he said. Christian conservatives have “reminded us that much of American political history, from abolition to the civil rights movement, is a story of religiously informed social activism. They’ve stood for the principle that a genuine pluralism must include religious people,” Gerson said.

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