This comes more out of my personal than professional academic thinking, but The Atlantic laid out a good piece for how hard it is to align faith with politics, particularly when it comes to supporting a particular political party. This is why we advocate the separation of church and state, even though in reality our political culture is shaped by religion (and vice-versa). To quote the opening paragraphThere are lots of ways to be a Catholic public leader in the United States. But the only path that’s impossible, it seems, is to advocate policies that fully follow the Church’s teachings on Jesus. Politicians of both parties have to pick and choose their theology, sticking to party lines that defy the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops’ guide to faithful citizenship. For their part, lay Catholics have largely blended into the general electorate. Far from taking positions that are distinctive to their faith, many hold views that reflect their partisan allegiances.
