Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics, by Jacques Berlinerblau

Westminster John Knox Press, 2007  ISBN 978-0664231736
$16.95….now $11.87….30% until November 1.

As the general campaign heats up in anticipation of the presidential election in November, this new book offers a fascinating new look at an old issue, namely candidates' and politicians' use of the Bible in public political discourse.  Prof. Jacques Berlinerblau brings impressive credentials to this work.  He is Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, where he also directs the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He holds doctorates in ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, and in Sociology. He has published on a wide variety of issues ranging from the composition of the Hebrew Bible, the sociology of heresy, modern Jewish intellectuals, African-American and Jewish-American relations, and is a featured columnist on the Washington Post's Web site.

A life-long New Yorker until his move to Washington, D.C, Berlinerblau's tone in this book is far from dryly academic.  His witty, sometimes sarcastic observations will delight and infuriate most everyone of whatever political stripe.  Liberals, progressives, conservatives, and independents will all find reason to cheer and to rail.  Under the rubric of “Bible-thumping,” Berlinerblau examines a variety of appeals to Scripture on issues such as abortion, stem cell research, gay rights, public school education, the poor, and foreign policy by politicians and interest groups. 

Starting with the insight of a colleague that “the Bible is just raw power” that can be used for good or evil, Berlinerblau examines how the Bible is the most revered symbol of the nation’s collective faith.  He surveys the “wreckage” that results from ill-considered, high-speed Bible-thumping.  Beginning with what the calls “the comeback” of the Bible on the national scene in the early 1970’s, Berlinerblau examines the speeches and rhetoric of politicians and interest groups through the ensuing decades, concluding with an examination of the current presidential campaign front runners:  McCain, Romney, Giuliani, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. 

Along the way, Berlinerblau documents the shift in the Bible as a symbol of collective faith to its current functionality as a source of specific positions on extremely complex contemporary national and foreign policy issues, issues which are themselves not explicitly addressed in Scripture.  This fundamental tension between Bible symbol and Bible as answer-book is at the heart of the book.  His analysis of political rhetoric works with tools he cleverly labels the “dueling banjo” approach, the “hermeneutics of emphasis,” “the Generic,” the “cite and run” method, “transvaluation,” and “the Bible’s Dark Side.”

Berlinerblau is clear that successful candidates must have and present a clear and compelling message about their personal beliefs and also articulate the role of religion in American public life.  He offers guidelines for how this can be done without encumbering the candidate in a scriptural morass.  And he is quite persuasive in arguing that the intersection of Bible and religion with national and foreign policy produces a dangerous mix.

Thumpin’ It invites readers to examine the ways in which their own faith informs and shapes their political positions and their preference of candidates.  It will bring awareness of a mainline Protestant privilege which disadvantages Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Muslims and non-believers in the civic arena.  And perhaps most importantly, it will make readers on the receiving end of political rhetoric into more discerning critical listeners, carefully examining Bible thumpin’ rhetoric with an ear towards honesty, integrity, and the common good.