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Bergstrom and others objected to Reagan's assertion that "morality's foundation is religion." Said the Lutheran leader: "Even Scripture admits the morality of nonbelievers." Forest Montgomery, an official of the moderate National Association of Evangelicals, also faulted the President's closed equation of religion with righteousness. "I sympathize with the nonbelievers on that one. There are some very fine atheists."
The debate over the role of religion in politics is clearest when it involves a specific matter of public policy. The most contentious issue is Government tolerance of, and financing for, abortions. On a personal plane, abortion is a moral and religious decision. Politically, pressure continues for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortions, and the G.O.P. platform went so far as to suggest that opposition to abortion should be required of prospective judges. The debate also involves whether those with deeply held views against abortion should feel compelled to oppose policies and politicians more tolerant of it. "I don't see how a Catholic in good conscience can vote for a candidate who explicitly supports abortion," said Archbishop O'Connor in June. Governor Cuomo, who opposes a ban on abortion, was angry at the Archbishop's political intrusion. The two men have since come to a consensus on the separation of church and state, even as they agree to disagree about abortion law. "The Catholic Church will not tell people what party, what politician to vote for," says Cuomo. "They will teach us, and should teach us, what they think about abortion." Yet a fundamental, more personal question lingers, unresolved: Cuomo, Ferraro and others argue that their private disapproval of abortion has no necessary bearing on their public, political attitudes.
Questions about the role of religion in politics also occur on a level more abstract than the to-and-fro over particular legislative issues. By allying himself with the Religious Right and its tendency toward a self-righteous zeal, President Reagan can seem, at times, to be appropriating godliness itself for his party and Administration. Last week Columnist Mike Royko joked bitterly about the tendency. "They've managed to convince a large segment of the population that God is a conservative Republican."