| | Religion and Politics: A Historical Turning Point
This post could have been (and to a lesser degree is) about McCain and Obama - intellectual midgets, morally challenged, or both? But there is a larger perspective deserving of our attention.
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Kathleen Parker's column about the 'debate' between Obama and McCain held at Saddleback, says, "At the risk of heresy, let it be said that setting up the two presidential candidates for religious interrogation by an evangelical minister -- no matter how beloved -- is supremely wrong.
It is also un-American."
And, "By today's new standard of pulpits in the public square, Jefferson -- the great advocate for religious freedom in America -- would have lost."
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Another column, The Religious-Secular Divide, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, opens with "The recent campaign forum at Saddleback Church in which U.S. presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain answered questions from pastor Rick Warren, the new star of the evangelical Christian movement, could only have happened in America. The rest of the world watched in wonder as the two candidates proclaimed their faith before the tribunal of God, trying to persuade the jury that their views on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, state-sponsored altruism and other "value" issues do not depart (too much) from dogma." And, "The encounter at Saddleback, a megachurch in California's Orange County, brought home to an international audience a great theme of American history: the tension between the theocratic and the secular. It has been there from the nation's beginning, in the difference between the original Virginia settlers, whose ambition was not subordinate to religion, and the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, who wanted to establish the kingdom of God." And, "This unresolved struggle -- the 800-pound gorilla at the Saddleback forum -- is what stands in the way of the Republican Party becoming truly the party of small government."
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Another column, "The New Evangelical Politics," written by E. J. Dionne, is sooo happy that the evangelical Christian world is breaking free of a few, Republican held Christian issues, like gay marriage and stem cell research and finally setting an agenda that is being picked up by both parties. "The era of reducing Christianity to a narrow set of ideological commitments is over."
And, quoting Reverend Warren on Fox News, ""Jesus' agenda is far bigger than just one or two issues. ... We have to care about poverty, we have to care about disease, we have to care about illiteracy, we have to care about corruption in government, sex trafficking."
And, "For a Democratic nominee four years ago, a meeting at Warren's church would have been an away game -- if it had taken place at all. This time around, Pastor Rick made sure that in a Christian house of worship, there would be no home-court advantage."
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What does it say about this country's intellectual state and the nature of the two candidates that this awful spectacle occurred and went almost unremarked? Apart from Ed Hudgin's article and the two I link to in this post, there seems to be little concern about the candidates for America's highest office eagerly submitting themselves to a religious 'litmus test' or that religion is breaking out of its little corner of conservative Republicanism proudly proclaiming that proper bipartisan politics flows from religious faith.
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p.s. When we vote for the lesser of two evils, we can't help but to also vote for that candidates underlying principles, assumptions, and intellectual baggage in the areas of altruism and faith.
(Edited by Steve Wolfer on 8/21, 11:40pm)
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