Author: Faith should lead, politics follow
Aug. 21, 2007
NOTE: Photographs and audio are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) - After studying the effects of religion on politics in places as diverse as Chiapas, Mexico, and Charlotte, N.C., author Charlene Floyd has reached the conclusion "that faith should lead and politics should follow."
A member of the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist in New York, Floyd says religious groups most often get into trouble "when politics are setting the agenda for people of faith."
In her book Christian Voices: Journeys through Faith and Politics in Contemporary American Protestantism, she explores how "seasoned believers" - not theologians or politicians - integrate their faith into their political perceptions. The book was published in May by Greenwood Publishing Group.
"Regardless of when or where, each of these Christians has been transformed by his or her faith and has sought to be in a community with others who share the same convictions and experiences," she writes in the book's introduction.
Their stories are relevant "because each of the individuals profiled ... participates, on some level, in the American political system. And, without exception, each of them unequivocally claims that his or her faith is the most important factor shaping his or her political decisions."
Floyd, 45, who has a doctoral degree in political society from the Graduate School of the City University of New York, is an adjunct professor at New York Theological Seminary and adjunct assistant professor at Baruch College in New York.
She is married to the Rev. James "K" Karpen, pastor of St. Paul and St. Andrew, and they have two children, Jessie, 9 and Harry, 6. At the church, she has taken on a variety of roles beyond that of clergy spouse, including coordinating the Homework Help tutoring program.
Life-long interest
The interaction of religion and politics has been part of her life since childhood. Her father, the Rev. Roger Floyd, now a retired United Methodist pastor, took an active role in politics through his position with the area's council of churches and even ran for mayor of Bridgeport, Conn.
When she attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, she designed her own interdisciplinary major in religion and politics, focusing on the base communities and liberation theology of Latin America. In 1985, a year after graduation, she went to Mexico for a year, where she lived in a Christian base community and learned Spanish.
Researching the political impact of Catholic laity in Mexico seemed like a natural topic for her doctoral dissertation when she entered graduate school, but Floyd said she encountered resistance to its religious theme at a time when political scientists seemed bent on secularization. "They finally approved my proposal and I had no money to go (back to Mexico)," she added. "I had to take out a loan."
Soon, events in Mexico bolstered her proposal. In January 1994, news of the uprising in Chiapas, led by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army, caught the attention of the political science community and she received a grant allowing her to continue the research and pay off her loan.
Floyd completed her dissertation on the Catholic Church and democratization in southern Mexico in 1998. She also studied the interaction of religion and politics in the United States - an interest heightened by her observations during the 2004 presidential race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. "Religious groups on both sides played a part in the election," she said.
Faith journeys
When Greenwood Publishing approached her about doing a book, the idea for Christian Voices was born. In the book, Floyd personalizes the issue of religion and politics by focusing on individual and congregational stories.
The 16 individual faith journeys recounted in the book are set within various religious communities - two United Methodist congregations, in Charlotte, N.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y.; a newly formed Presbyterian church in Delaware, Ohio, and a Southern Baptist congregation in Houston. The communities were culled from a list of about 100 that basically were chosen by word of mouth, "not a very scientific method," she acknowledged.
Floyd found a variety of political viewpoints, both among the congregations and within each congregation. The conservative Southern Baptist congregation, for example, "provides a really nice counterpoint" to the socially liberal Park Slope church in Brooklyn. "It was amazing to see their (Southern Baptist) passion and commitment," she said.
But even at Park Slope, she added, "They're talking about their prayer life."
So, at one end of the spectrum, Dorothee Benz - a Park Slope member who identifies herself as a lesbian and hard-core socialist - says she is not looking for "some kind of flashy miracle" through her prayer life but seeks "an active piece of God constantly flowing through me."
At the other end, Fred Williams, the president of a Houston-based trust company and third-generation Baptist, uses prayer as a tool to help make family decisions, such as deciding that their children should attend the local public school rather than a private Christian school based at their church. "We pray for one child at a time and take one year at a time," Williams explains in the book.
The focus on prayer was a constant in all the congregations. "People were just passionate about that," Floyd said. "Politics made no difference."
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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