Political pandering to the religious
Why are our political elections so entwined with religion? It used to be that the purview of religion was strictly Republican, but now, the Democrats hoping to cash in on the “morals” vote has decided to pander to the religious as well.
On August 24th, the Democrats will open their gathering with, get this, an interfaith service planned by an ordained Pentecostal minister, Leah Daughtry.
As I’m sure you know, Barack Obama has made religion a part of his campaign, sometimes to his detriment. Who can forget his fiery spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s words of “God damn America”?
Today it has been reported that Barack Obama and John McCain will be joining the Rev. Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California, on August 16th for a forum. Each candidate will have a chance to pander to the religious community when Warren interviews them in succession at the gathering in his megachurch.
I’m sure the Democrats think this is good politics, but I have to wonder if the backlash cometh. According to a 2002 survey, there are 30 million people in the non-theistic community ranks. In a ten year period of time Christians decreased from 86% of the population to 77%. During the same period of time religious institutional membership dropped from 61 percent to 54 percent.
Among Native Americans 19% indicated they were of no religion, and African Americans as well as Hispanics who were surveyed chose no religion as the second most likely response. Over a million American Jews and 20% of Asian Americans identified themselves as not adhering to religion.
What might come as a surprise is that of the people surveyed claiming no religious leanings, 43 percent of them were self-professed Independents on the political scale.
If the entwining of religion and politics was benign in the making of policy and laws probably few would complain, but that’s not the case. Just recently, Health and Human Services, in concession to the political right, announced a plan to define contraception as abortion, thus allowing any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman’s access to contraception. See:
On July 1st Obama said he wants to expand, yes EXPAND, the faith based initiative with more social service funds.
With all the religious pandering going on in this election, where does that leave the agnostic, the atheist and those who are just indifferent to religion?
This encroachment by religion on our government is not a new problem. It has been an argument and a problem since the founding of this country. The best (and often quoted by me) comment I’ve ever read on this religious pandering comes from the year 1802, from John Leland, Bapist Minister (emphasis mine):
. . . Disdain mean suspicion, but cherish manly jealousy; be always jealous of your liberty, your rights. Nip the first bud of intrusion on your constitution. Be not devoted to men; let measures be your object, and estimate men according to the measures they pursue. Never promote men who seek after a state-established religion; it is spiritual tyranny–the worst of despotism. It is turnpiking the way to heaven by human law, in order to establish ministerial gates to collect toll. It converts religion into a principle of state policy, and the gospel into merchandise. Heaven forbids the bans of marriage between church and state; their embraces therefore, must be unlawful. Guard against those men who make a great noise about religion, in choosing representatives. It is electioneering. If they knew the nature and worth of religion, they would not debauch it to such shameful purposes. If pure religion is the criterion to denominate candidates, those who make a noise about it must be rejected; for their wrangle about it, proves that they are void of it. Let honesty, talents and quick despatch, characterise the men of your choice. Such men will have a sympathy with their constituents, and will be willing to come to the light, that their deeds may be examined. . . .
Source: Excerpt from “July 4th Oration by John Leland, July 5, 1802″
That pretty much says it all for me.
The complete survey referenced in this article may be found HERE
Comments Off
August 25th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I have been giving money both to the DNC and to the Barack Obama campaign. Now I understand that a high ranking DNC member Leah Daughtry is funding anti Gay, Creationist, and Anti Choice agendas within the Democratic party. What is happening to the Democrats? I’m not giving one more cent nor am I willing to support any Democrat until I get a response about this issue. I’m encouraging all of my friends and colleagues to withhold financial support from the DNC and from the Barack Obama campaign until we get a response about this outrage.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
She’s also a believer in Black Liberation Theology.
I don’t what party this is but it’s not the Democratic Party I joined and I want no part of it.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:07 am
This is an incredibly important subject because people who believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, supernatural entity are making policy decisions that affect everyone. That is very scary. A candidate’s spiritual beliefs should remain personal and outside the purview of politics, but that just won’t happen in this country because so many religious absolutists happen to donate money and vote. The great minds who wrote our Constitution were deists and atheists . That is why they clearly wanted separation of church and state–and for good reason (not good “belief”). The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was intended to prohibit Congress from setting up a national religion or privileging one religion over another. Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and Madison certainly knew what a mess they would create if that were to happen. Yet our modern candidates, in spite of all the scientific evidence to the contrary, proclaim their faith in a Christian God every time they shout, “God Bless America” from the podium. To pretend that they really are open to all faiths is disingenuous. They are simply afraid to acknowledge that atheism or agnosticism should have equal status, or that atheists and agnostics deserve respect and are as ethical as professors of specific faiths. Anyway, the pandering to Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists is transparent and insulting. It makes me dislike both parties; however, Obama’s vision and policies are so much better than McCain’s that I must overlook his pandering to the faithful and see it as a response to the insidious Internet lies about his being a closet Muslim.