Jan 08 2008
“let’s take secular nonsense and pious silliness out of politics”
…says Isaac C. Rottenberg in a Rocky Mountain News Speakout commentary.
Rottenberg starts by quoting Washington University professor Jonathan Turley,
“This election, the candidates are talking so much about faith that one would think they wanted to be in the College of Cardinals rather than the Hall of Presidents.”
He doesn’t explain his secular nonsense comment , so I fear while he’s trying to bring a new commentary to the extensive debate of religion and elections Rottenberg is just rehashing (in new words) what many political commentators have said, that Constitution prohibits any religious test for office.
Rottenber is right about one thing, that this campaign has been overridden by pious silliness.
Charles Krauthammer in his Washington Post column called the phenomenon an “overdose of public piety.”
Mitt Romney declares, “Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.” Barack Obama opens his speech at his South Carolina Oprah rally with “Giving all praise and honor to God. Look at the day that the Lord has made.” Mike Huckabee explains his surge in the polls thus: “There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people.”
This campaign is knee-deep in religion, and it’s only going to get worse. I’d thought that the limits of professed public piety had already been achieved during the Republican CNN-YouTube debate when some squirrelly looking guy held up a Bible and asked, “Do you believe every word of this book?” — and not one candidate dared reply: None of your damn business.
It would be interesting to try to find the source of this piety (some of which I believe to be just purely rhetorical, and some with consider a lie). Is it fear of the evangelical right’s ability to rally the troops and make their voices (irrational as they many be) heard louder than those who try for a balanced approach?
There is a communication theory that says it is easier to persuade from the middle to one extreme, than from one extreme to the other. So maybe all of our candidates are trying to balance themselves on a pin in the religious middle, thus all the piousness.
6 responses so far
Is it just me, or is the press being rather hypocritical about religion in politics? In 2000 and 2004, when the Bush campaign was openly courting the radical religious right and hyping Bush’s born again status, the use of religion in a political milieu was considered acceptable. Now that the Republicans have a Mormon (antithetical to most evangelical christians) who is among the frontrunners, and the Democrats have Obama (who has long term religious bonafides), politics and religion suddenly shouldn’t mix? To be fair, the press has a long pedigree of such double standards. Jimmy Carter was a born again christian who governed from slightly left of center. Reagan rarely saw the inside of a church. Bush I ditto. The Clintons attended church reguarly. Bush II, despite (or maybe because of) his born again credentials rarely goes to church.
Until the press decides to treat religion the same for both parties, leave it alone. If a candidate brings it up, question why they are bringing it up. Most of all, ask any religious candidate if they will make decisions based on faith or critical thinking.
I think it’s one of those things where we are knee deep in religious conversations during this campaign, but I think the religious discussion took this turn during the last elections. In that regard the trend is not that new. At the same time the media discourse evolves around the same themes over and over again: it’s ok to have a healthy debate on religious views but it’s not ok to question a candidate based on their religious views. I’m not sure how we can accomplish either without crossing into the other’s territory.
I would rather have both parties pull the religious card, than only one. That way it cancels itself out.
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I simply hate politics and politicians as well… almost all of them are only liars!