Back in March Stanford anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann wrote an interesting op-ed in the New York Times focusing on the politics of evangelicals but relevant to Orthodox Jews too:
It’s election season and once again Democrats are flummoxed by evangelical voters.… That’s because evangelicals and secular liberals … think about life — and therefore politics — in such utterly different ways.
If you want to understand how evangelicals conceive of their political life you need to understand how they think about G-d.… What someone believes is important to these Christians but what really matters is becoming a better person. As I listened in church and participated in prayer groups I saw that when people prayed they imagined themselves in conversation with G-d.… They … try to become the person they would be if they were always aware of being in G-d’s presence even when the kids fuss and the train runs late.…
This completely changes the way someone thinks about politics.
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