When politics trumps faith, marriage suffers

The New York Times Style Section recently ran a report called “UNEASY BEDFELLOWS,” describing marriages that reached the point of dissolution because of arguments concerning Donald Trump. When I discussed the subject on the air, one astute caller noted that none of the couples featured in the story seemed to share a religious outlook, and he suggested that if they did, they could far more easily handle their political disputes.

My caller makes a good point.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans now use politics as a substitute for faith, treating party loyalty as a matter of uncompromising identity that provides meaning, transcendence and a sense of morality.

Passionate partisans on both sides see political disputes not as choices of policies or values, but as the ultimate struggle between good and evil. If couples worshiped a higher power together, they wouldn’t need to sacrifice relationships on the altar of either Trump or Clinton, and might treat political quarrels as the ephemeral, well-intentioned disagreements they really are.

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