God and country

Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance. By Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini. New York University Press, 175 pp., $22.95.

Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History. By James A. Morone. Yale University Press, 575 pp., $35.00.

Alabama is where I grew up, where most of my family still lives and where I've spent a fair amount of time lately. During the past summer the state's citizens were asked to consider a new tax plan, which Governor Bob Riley, its chief proponent, sometimes referred to as "biblical" in orientation. Riley said that the Bible teaches us that we must love God, love one another and live in ways that do not oppress the poor. He asserted that Alabama's old system of taxation, which was by all accounts astonishingly regressive, led to the oppression of poor people. He wanted to overhaul the entire system to make it better accord with biblical standards.

At times polls seemed to suggest that Riley's plan might possibly be approved by voters. A number of the state's most prominent Christian organizations endorsed it. But on September 9, when Alabamians went to the polling booths, the tax proposal went down to defeat. In most parts of the world a politician who spent much time talking about the Bible while trying to push through a new tax plan would be seen as something of a crank. In many nations Christian influence on politics is viewed with suspicion. According to press reports, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair was recently told by his advisers that it would be unwise of him to end a speech with a phrase such as "God bless you." Such an ending struck them as excessively pious. Blair fumed, but he left the phrase out.

In Alabama, on the other hand, the public sphere is drenched in Christian language. When one of my cousins started trying cases in the Alabama courts, he soon determined that he had better start carrying a Bible in his briefcase. Jurors would stare at him blankly when he quoted Marshall or Brandeis, but would perk up when he quoted Jesus or Paul. And, of course, most of the citizens of Alabama cannot for the life of them see how anyone could object to the huge Ten Commandments monument that used to sit in the atrium of the state's judicial building. The monument, they think, simply expressed an obvious truth: the laws of this nation rest upon a Judeo-Christian foundation.