The Bible verses in the spotlight at party conventions

This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter . Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

I wrote last week about how political parties appeal to religious voters , noting that the process is getting harder as the country becomes more religiously diverse — and less religiously engaged.

Under these conditions, party leaders, including top politicians, must look for ways to connect with Christians without alienating non-Christians and to connect with religious voters without alienating nonreligious voters.

That effort is more visible in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party at the moment, since it’s more religiously diverse, and since it has a higher share of religious “nones.”

One of my sources for the story, Brian Kaylor, co-author of “ Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism ,” helpfully walked me through what it looks like to appeal to religious voters without being overly religious by highlighting examples from last week’s Democratic National Convention.

He noted that several speakers at the DNC referenced biblical teachings without citing specific Bible verses, focusing their remarks on general moral wisdom rather than Christian ideals.

“They’re borrowing biblical or religious language without taking a Bible-thumping approach,” Kaylor said, as I wrote in my article .

Kaylor built on that point in an X post about popular Bible verses at the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

While the list for Republicans was comprised of four specific Bible passages, the list for Democrats had two specific verses and two broad faith-based teachings.

Common Bible references at the Republican National Convention:

• Matthew 5:14 — “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”
• Esther 4:14 — “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
• Ephesians 6:11 — “Put on the whole armor of God.”
• Isaiah 54:17 — “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper.”

Common Bible references at the Democratic National Convention:

• Love your neighbor.
• The Golden Rule.
• Psalm 30:5 — “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
• Micah 6:8 — “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

Fresh off the press

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Term of the week: Swartzentrubers

The Swartzentruber Amish are the most conservative Amish sect. Right now, some of the Swartzentrubers in central and eastern Ohio are engaged in a battle against state officials over a law requiring buggies, a key mode of transportation for the Amish, to have a flashing LED light on the back, according to Religion News Service .

The state says its focus is on safety, arguing that the lights reduce crashes between buggies and cars, while the Swartzentrubers claim the light requirement violates their religious freedom.

The community “sees the lights as frivolous adornments, which goes against the sect’s religious commitment to simplicity. Members are also wary of deviating from tradition, according to the Bible’s mandate to honor one’s forefathers,” Religion News Service reported.

What I’m reading ...

Gordon College, a Christian school in Boston, could be on the hook to repay more than $7 million to the federal government if it can’t work out a conflict with the Small Business Administration over a COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program loan. “While millions of PPP loans have been forgiven, some employers, like Gordon, have run afoul of SBA rules and found themselves with debt they did not expect to repay,” according to Religion News Service.

As the country continues to deal with the fallout from the 2022 Supreme Court decision returning control over abortion policy to the states, a small but significant group of conservative Christian leaders, according to The New York Times, is planning the downfall of in vitro fertilization .

Odds and ends

How much do you know about dreaming? The New York Times recently put out a quiz on what happens when we sleep , and I was blown away by how much I didn’t know.

My older son turns 4 this week. Longtime newsletter readers will remember when he arrived on the scene. Thanks for all the support you’ve given me over the years as not just a writer, but a mom.