Religion As A Campaign Weapon
Andrew Sullivan quotes Bill Clinton's remark last week, "What separates us is that we haven't tried to have our politics driven by religion." (I assume Clinton means what separates us from the barbarians in the Middle East.)
Wait. Politics not driven by religion? Where's Clinton been? Like me, Sullivan sees an "uncomfortably sectarian cast to this election":
There is strong Republican pressure on the Catholic bishops meeting last week to criticize John Kerry for his permissive stand on abortion. The Catholic bishops in Massachusetts have sent letters to all parishioners urging them not to vote for state legislators who support marriage rights for gay couples. Various Catholic bishops have said they will not give communion to politicians who support the right to an abortion - forcing the governor of New Jersey, for one, to withdraw from the Communion rail. Some bishops have even said that communion should not be given to lay Catholics who vote for such politicians - ruling out a whole swathe of the Democratic party from the Catholic church.Last week, president Bush addressed by satellite the annual convention of the Southern Baptists, the same week they pulled out of the international Baptist organization because they feared it was becoming too liberal. They returned the favor by promising to rally support for the president's proposed Constitutional amendment to deny gay couples any legal protections for their relationships. The Texas Republican party recently passed a platform making it a felony for anyone to perform a same-sex marriage in the state and were addressed by a pastor who said, "Give us Christians in America who are more wholehearted, more committed and more militant for you and your kingdom than any fanatical Islamic terrorists are for death and destruction." Virginia recently passed a law invalidating even private contracts between two people of the same-sex - an attempt to strip gay couples of even the most basic protections for their relationships. And the National Catholic Reporter informed its readers last week that George Bush, in his recent meeting with the Pope, had complained that some American Catholic bishops were "not with me" on social issues. By that he was understood to mean that they had not sufficiently condemned Kerry for being a bad Catholic for his support of legal abortion.
...In the recent Bob Woodward book, Bush famously denied that his own father was a source of political advice. What mattered was the advice of his "Heavenly father." Bush knows not to push this too far: "The best way for faith to operate in somebody is, as I said, to let the light shine as opposed to trying to defend or alter or get my job mixed up with a preacher's job. And the only way you can do that is just be yourself, without crossing any lines of politics and religion. Separation of church and state [is] important in America. And by that I mean the people of faith should participate in the state, and there's a difference." That difference may not be so apparent in the White House itself. The former speech-writer, David Frum, observed that one of the first things he was asked when he got his job was whether he was going to Bible study.ÝHe's Jewish.
How can it be, in the 21st Century, that the guy running our country is not only open, but brags about, having frequent chats with an extremely well-placed imaginary friend, and we keep him as president instead of keeping him in a padded room?
>How can it be, in the 21st Century, that the guy running our
>country is not only open, but brags about, having frequent chats
>with an extremely well-placed imaginary friend, and we keep him
>as president instead of keeping him in a padded room?
Remember that "sanity" is culturally determined. That's why
psychiatrists and psychologists speak of sanity and mental illness and
not sanity and "insanity."
If most of the people in the culture hear disembodied voices talking to
them, then the padded room gets used for those who don't hear the
voices.
Ron at June 29, 2004 7:04 AM
I'm hoping for yellow padding and coordinated yellow and orange bed restraints.
Amy Alkon at June 29, 2004 8:09 AM
Ron -- Psychiatrists don't speak of sanity or insanity, because those are two dimensions of an essentially legal concept. They speak instead of individuals with various psychotic disorders. The rest of us just have garden-variety neuroses (which are so common that they were removed from the DSM).
Is there anyone out there who can salvage even a trace of logic from the following verbal gas leak:
"Separation of church and state [is] important in America. And by that I mean the people of faith should participate in the state, and there's a difference."
He sounds much better when he's reading children's books about goats.
Lena at June 29, 2004 8:25 AM
wait. what is Sullivan thinking? his own right wing rantings have helped create the mess he is now bemoaning. when you support shrub, you get the whole packet, you just don't get to pick and choose. he should be awarded the special order of the idiot for all the help he has given over the years to the supreme asshole.
rhc
rhc at June 29, 2004 11:51 AM
Don't you love when gay Republicans suddenly pay attention and realize their party doesn't like them very much?
At least Sullivan's one up on Al Rantel, who's incapable of figuring that out.
LYT at June 29, 2004 12:49 PM
I'm not defending gay Republicans. But I can understand how they'd get very jazzed about that shitlicker Mary Cheney back in 2000.
Lena at June 29, 2004 12:55 PM
>"Separation of church and state [is] important in America. And by that I mean the people of faith should participate in the state, and there's a difference."
Remember, this is the person who had the following exchange with Robert I. Sherman on Aug 27, 1987:
Sherman: "What will you do to win the votes of Americans who are atheists?"
Bush: "I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me."
Sherman: "Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?"
Bush: "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
Sherman: "Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?"
Bush: "Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists."
Ron at June 29, 2004 1:05 PM
Strike that previous. Wrong Bush. That was the father.
Ron at June 29, 2004 1:09 PM
Funny how Republicans are pressuring Catholic Bishops to bash on Kerry for not being a "true Catholic" and yet Governor Schwarzenegger is Catholic, has the same positions on gays, abortion and whatnot as Kerry, and he gets a green light.
Shocked, I say, shocked to hear that there's gambling here in River City....
Greg Dewar at July 11, 2004 10:46 AM