Although she would have a hard time convincing many Harvard students, Meghan E. Grizzle ’07 says “abstinence until marriage is the most freeing, healthiest, and most beneficial decision men and women can make.”
This passionate Christian, like more than 20,000 others a member of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, was in for a shock when she arrived at Harvard.
Growing up in deeply conservative Orange County, “I thought that all evangelical and Protestant Christians were Republicans and all Republicans were Christians,” she says.
“After setting foot on Harvard’s campus, I found that both my faith and my political affiliation were minorities,” she says. Feeling out of place, she “sought a home” in the Harvard Republican Club (HRC).
The HRC has become a haven for many people like Grizzle. Although the group counts Jews, Muslims, and atheists as its members, Grizzle says the HRC is dominated by Christians who are not afraid to let their religion influence their political beliefs.
HRC president Stephen E. Dewey ’07 contrasts the styles of the two major parties on campus. “Democrats are very skeptical of allowing religion a place in the forum of political discussion,” he says, “while Republicans are comfortable taking religious beliefs into account as one factor among many in crafting our policy.”
According to HRC member Travis R. Kavulla ’06, also editor of conservative campus newspaper the Harvard Salient and a Crimson editor, Republicans are seen as blind followers who don’t understand the ideals behind the group.
They are seen as “largely uneducated, brainwashed people living in rural communities or in the South,” says this practicing Catholic. Kavulla says that Republicans “endure the caricature because they, to a certain extent, keep up to its image.”
“Religion doesn’t have to be the opiate of the masses,” Kavulla says. “People need to realize that religion and faith doesn’t mean that you are unintelligible.” Conservative Christians can be free-thinking, but also faithful.
And faithful they are. The members of the predominantly Catholic group, some of whom go to Mass together, do not leave their personal faith out of the equation.
Salient Editor Emerita Kathryn A. Tiskus ’06, a fishnet stocking-wearing libertarian in contrast to the largely Christian conservative Salient staff, says she was uncomfortable with this religiosity. Disinterested in the issues being discussed by the Salient’s “very Catholic” and “very Orthodox” members, she says, she recently quit the newspaper.
Internal critics aside, those across the aisle, like members of the Harvard Democrats, do not directly cite religious teachings as political policy, but in contrast to Dewey’s comments, many are quick to say that religion does influence their political beliefs.
“Religion is a personal and private matter that does and should color people’s perception of politics,” says Eric P. Lesser ‘07, president of the Harvard College Democrats. Lesser says that his Judaism is especially important to him, and that Jewish values, such as tzedekah (justice or charity), tikkun olam (healing the world), and mitzvah (God’s moral commandments), make him a Democrat.
The Dems boast many Jewish members like Lesser, but Harvard Dems member Kyle A. Krahel ’08 claims that like the HRC, it “is not a monolithic religious group.”
Outspoken and passionate—and still a practicing Christian—Krahel confesses that he used to be Republican. Raised in the conservative environment of Oceanside, Calif., being a Democrat wasn’t an option. However, as soon as he arrived at Harvard, Krahel says, he realized that being a Republican wasn’t for him and joined the Harvard Dems.
Krahel says that while Democrats are not irreligious, they are generally secular when it comes to politics.
Lesser is critical of Republicans who insist that Democrats are profane atheists. “Nationally, Republicans do a good job of painting Democrats as being not religious, and Republicans are really good at labeling people,” he says. “That’s what they do. Republicans label.” Ouch.
Lesser hopes that most people are able to see through the Republican Party’s image of Democrats as irreligious. He is determined to break down that image and insists that the Democratic party is the party of values.
Ultimately, it is clear that members of both parties see their respective organizations as reflective of the values of religion. But it is not hard to see that there are intelligent and clear-headed Christians on the HRC, and that, no, the Harvard Dems are not godless heathens.
