WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined The Holy Post Podcast for an interview with Skye Jethani to talk about U.S. foreign policy matters in the Middle East, what led him to attend divinity school, and how Democratic leaders can work to speak more openly about their faith and bring more religious voters into the party.
You can listen here.
Key excerpts:
Early Faith and Path to Divinity School
Jethani: What's the journey from divinity school to the U.S. Senate? Why does divinity school end up in public political service?
Senator Coons: I was very active in youth group and Sunday school and that just sort of formed the foundation of faith in action. My mother volunteered with a group of women at our church to welcome refugees, a refugee family from South Vietnam – who were literally rescued, you know, from the ocean – having fled persecution after the fall of Vietnam, and worked at a homeless ministry, Emmanuel Dining Room, that still serves every day in downtown Wilmington. And my father for a time volunteered in prison ministry.
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The great thing – and this is a long-winded answer, so interrupt me if it's getting past your level of interest – but the great thing about a divinity school as opposed to a seminary was, I had classmates from a very wide range of traditions. A great friend who had gone to Oral Roberts as an undergraduate, another friend who was Catholic, another friend who is Muslim, but coming to the United States to train to be a professor of religious studies, friends who were going into pulpit ministry as Congregationalists and Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and friends who really weren't sure why they were there but their parents were ministers or you know, they came from a long line of ministers and so they were [pastors’ kids] who were there, sort of trying to work out their future. It was a wonderful experience. I left with less certainty than I went in. So, if I were to summarize my lessons: humility. Humility in the face of the awesomeness and depth of Scripture. Humility about the certainty of my interpretation and understanding, and thus a demand or a call to constantly re-evaluate and learn, so an increased certainty about the call and the grace and the mercy and the salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ and a less absolute certainty about, “this scripture means this and we can ignore these and we have to follow these,” which as you get into politics becomes a more pressing question.
Democratic Messaging
Jethani: How do you think the Democratic Party can do better at drawing religious voters back into its fold or what missteps do you look at and think, we need to do better in this area?
Senator Coons: First, I think we have to show biblical literacy. I think we have to make connections between why are you fighting for health care for the poor and the disabled and the elderly? Why are you working for food programs for children? Like where does this come from? If you can't articulate some connection between a Torah definition of righteousness that focuses on how you welcome the hungry, the foreigner, the stranger, the orphan, the widow, the imprisoned – if you can't draw a line between, sort of, here's my priorities and what I'm doing and, it's rooted in the Luke 4 passage where Jesus stands up in his home synagogue and says this is my ministry and my mission – if you can't draw some of those connections, don't be surprised when religious or theologically serious people sort of doubt the sincerity of your engagement.
Second, and I'm just going to be really blunt about this, the kind of liberal consensus in the Democratic Party of the last couple of years … mistakenly viewed Black and Brown Americans, folks who are from the Hispanic community, from the African-American community, as inalterably and fundamentally progressive because they had experienced racism and racially based oppression for centuries – missing that enduring that oppression largely was possible because of a focus on faith. And so, every Black church I've been to in my home state of Delaware, you've got a really powerful, focused, engaged, on-fire community that is getting through things that are hard to get through by leaning on the arms. And so, not bringing a message rooted in values and in particular, in faith, in connecting with communities that have experienced oppression and have transited it by faith is a huge mistake. Nothing offends and annoys Hispanic and Black communities more than treating them as victims, rather than as heroes who have transcended oppression through the depth of their faith.
Faith in Leadership and the Future of the Democrats
Jethani: Can you point to evidence that you think the party is getting that message that it's trying to adjust, that it will be different in 2026 and 2028?
Senator Coons: There are certainly several of us trying very hard in this direction. Look, Joe Biden was our last Democratic president, and if there is one defining characteristic millions of Americans knew about Joe Biden that helped them trust him in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic, at a time of chaos and uncertainty, it's that Joe Biden endured huge deep grief twice in his life: the loss of his wife and daughter just before Christmas in a tragic car accident, the loss of his beloved son Beau to glioblastoma, a terrible brain cancer. And they knew that in moments of loss and of celebration, he was on his knees praying at mass. Joe Biden does not talk about his faith much publicly…it is personal, it is something that has allowed him to endure. And I think lots of people looked at that and said, "You know what, he gets me, because that's how I get through the hard things in life." They may not agree with his exact positions on important moral issues, but they knew that he was a kind and compassionate man, they knew he'd been raised by a family that got through some struggles as a blue-collar, middle-class family in Claymont relying on their faith.
Senator Coons: … If you think about three out of four of the last Democrats who became president: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, in addition to Joe Biden who I just talked about. All of them were not really of Washington, all of them were not well known before they were catapulted to electoral success, and all of them talked comfortably about their faith. Jimmy Carter continued to teach Sunday school at his hometown Baptist church throughout almost a hundred years and was – I think the election of Jimmy Carter was made possible by Richard Nixon. And I think Donald Trump, a demonstrably cruel, aggressive, and vulgar president will make possible the election of someone who champions compassion, decency, and a welcoming and gracious heart as long as that Democratic leader also makes clear that he sees and cares about opportunity and security for the people of our country.