Preach on, Brother Digby

I can't improve on this post from Digby demolishing the "knee-jerk left's" supposed hostility to religious Democrats. I volunteered for John Kerry and Al Gore, and I voted twice for Clinton. For Christmas, I bought my dad Jimmy Carter's most recent book, which we both like a lot. In the '88 primary, I pushed my mom to caucus for the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Hell, I was even there for Mondale--the son of a preacher man. Where were the rest of you?

I've always thought the crap that we freethinkers get from people like Amy Sullivan, implying that we somehow intimidate Democratic presidential candidates into hiding their religious faith, was pure bunk. The freethinking left just doesn't have the numbers to intimidate any but the most enfeebled candidate, and over the years we've happily tossed votes to, gee, thousands of overtly religious candidates at all levels of government. (It's that or don't vote.) Much of the squeamishness some Democratic candidates have shown about discussing their religion stems less, I think, from fear of nonbelievers than it does from simple good manners. When I was a lad, not so very long ago, I was taught that well brought-up people didn't air their religious opinions among strangers. Such discussions, my parents said, made for itchy, brittle evenings. It's a pity this standard of etiquette has fallen on such hard times. But I don't think for a minute that John Kerry seemed uncomfortable with public piety because he feared anyone or wanted to hide his Catholicism; it was because his mom and dad raised him right. I appreciated his reticence because it recalled better times, when the winners of Presidential elections actually became President. (Ms. Vowell, that joke of yours is gold, pure gold!)

Manners aside, all religions in this country may be equal, but some are more equal than others in the public square. White evangelicals and fundamentalists have been bullying their way onto the airwaves and into political parties for the last hundred years. There has been little to stop them, of course. America has been white Protestant-friendly since, well, always really. But it wasn't that long ago that Catholics couldn't join country clubs in this country. The KKK had, and may still have for all I know, Catholics on their enemies list. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, does nothing to hide his Mormonism; but he seems every bit as reticent to talk about his faith as John Kerry was to talk about his. (The Christian Right doesn't like the Mormons, as a rule, and Romney needs their support in '08.) When Joe Lieberman was running for the VP spot on Gore's ticket, pundits asked whether people would vote for a ticket with a devout Orthodox Jew on it. My response: not if that's the way he's going to debate Dick Cheney. And somehow I don't think America would feel quite so comfortable with out-and-proud Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims. (Does X take orders from Osama Bin Laden? What if Y reaches enlightenment just as the North Koreans launch their missiles? We put these questions to James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell tonight Hardball.) Many people who believe in minority religious faiths would have good reason to very twitchy talking about their faith in during an election campaign for fear of electoral failure, scorn, ridicule, and physical danger.

And as for atheists, well, George H.W. Bush's quote says it all:

I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

A very specific God. If Amy Sullivan wants to find out who has been making it hard for people of all religions--or no religion--to rub shoulders comfortably, she might want to recall the words of her Lord in Matthew 7:3: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"