A quick Reflection on Gerald Ford
A recent Time article described three elements of Ford's personal peity which i think represent "traditional" Anglican piety.
Ford dismissed a prayer group in part because it was becoming a political networking breakfast. Instead, he participated quietly in a smaller group focused on prayer.
Second, the day Ford pardoned Nixon, he went to an Anglican service at St. John's Lafayette Square - with no sermon. He participated equally with 50 other people before going on TV to pardon Nixon. The service simply offered a time to reflect upon his calling.
Third, he refused to use his piety as a political efficacy.
His was a faith that gives the heart enough strength to engage the public, that isn't paraded around as a badge of honor, a way of separating the righteous from the unrighteous, deeply aware of the incipient hypocrisy that public attestations of faith presume. But in a culture where everything is spectacle, how long can such a quiet, reserved faith survive?