Religious Rhetoric and American Politics

Abstract

President Obama concluded his 2012 speech at the prayer vigil for the Newtown shooting victims with these words: “May God bless and keep those we've lost in His heavenly place. May He grace those we still have with His holy comfort, and may He bless and watch over this community and the United States of America.” As Christopher Chapp demonstrates quite effectively in his Religious Rhetoric and American Politics, the use of religious language by President Obama is hardly unusual. Religious rhetoric has been a core part of political discourse from the Founding to today. What is less clear is what impact the use of such language has on political campaigns and public opinion. In this very impressive book, Chapp provides the first systematic treatment of the use of religious rhetoric in American politics. Religious rhetoric is common in American politics because Americans are and always have been highly religious. Just as Willie Sutton famously quipped that he robbed banks “because that's where the money is,” candidates appeal to religion because that is where the votes are. Chapp notes that religious discourse is particularly effective in this regard because it is “well equipped to resonate with individuals’ emotions and identities – two factors that, not coincidentally, are central to political persuasion” (4).