Pilgrim's Progress?, John Kerry's dubious approach to religion

Slate ^ | June 29, 2004 | Steven Waldman

[dano1]

As you may already know, one of America's two political parties is extremely religious. Sixty-one percent of this party's voters say they pray daily or more often. An astounding 92 percent of them believe in life after death. And there's a hard-core subgroup in this party of super-religious Christian zealots. Very conservative on gay marriage, half of the members of this subgroup believe Bush uses too little religious rhetoric, and 51 percent of them believe God gave Israel to the Jews and that its existence fulfills the prophecy about the second coming of Jesus.

Liberals could read these statistics and sneer about "those silly Republicans" were it not for the fact that it's the Democrats who hold these beliefs. And the abovementioned ultrareligious subgroup is not the so-called "Religious Right" but rather the so-called "African-Americans."

If you're surprised it's probably because we've been hearing a lot about the religion differences between the parties. Republicans are the party of the faithful and Democrats the party of secularists, goes the C.W. There is, according to Time magazine, a "Religion Gap." That's not exactly right, however. What exists is a church-attendance gap, not a religion gap or a "God gulf."

More Republicans do indeed go to church regularly, and the most secular folks are more likely to be Democrats. Both tendencies have, in fact, become more pronounced in recent years. But in general, most Republicans and most Democrats are pretty religious. The stark differences are at the extremes of each party, and, as so often is the case, the big question is whether the extremes will define the party as a whole. Most Republicans aren't conservative fundamentalists, although it sometimes seems that way given the proclivities of the leadership. And the Democrats have their own version of that same dilemma, and it's affecting the most important arena there is—this year's presidential race: Will Kerry's Democrats act like the Party of Secularists even if they aren't?

So far Kerry's campaign seems to be adopting this bewildering approach. Because of attacks from conservative Catholics, they are now shying away from discussing his conflict with the church. "The mood now is to shut up about it," Father Robert Drinan, the former congressman from Massachusetts who advises Kerry, told the Washington Times. And that fear apparently has spread to discussion of religion in general. As one Kerry aide told the Times, "Every time something with religious language got sent up the flagpole, it got sent back down, stripped of religious language."

[dano1]

"That Time magazine poll said only 7 percent of voters view him as a man of strong religious faith. ... This is true for three reasons, none of which have to do with God. First, if Kerry's uncomfortable with religion then he's uncomfortable with Americans.... Second, the fact that people view Bush as a man of faith is very much connected to their viewing him as decisive and steadfast, two of his strongest assets. A man of faith is a man of conviction, and vice versa....Finally, he needs to talk about his faith because it would strengthen him on the most important issue of the campaign—terrorism."

[dano1]

"If Kerry's strategy is to make people disassociate him with religion, then it's working nicely. That Time magazine poll said only 7 percent of voters view him as a man of strong religious faith."

[ClearCase_guy]

"Every time something with religious language got sent up the flagpole, it got sent back down, stripped of religious language."

It is possible that the rank-and-file Democrats are religious. (That's not my experience with Dems, but I'll suspend disbelief on this.) The bottomline is that the Party Elite are slaves to Marxism and Homosexuality. They will not operate the party as a religious affair. Never.

[Sam the Sham]

If you exempt blacks, the Democrats are pure secularists.

Mark my words. The big shock of this election will be a sharp drop in the black voter turnout for a "gay marriage" secularist.

[VOA]

If you exempt blacks, the Democrats are pure secularists.

And materialists.
As in Marxists or Darwinists.

[prion]

Sixty-one percent of this party's voters say they pray daily or more often.

Sixty-one percent of Democrats are black? Is this true?

[goldstategop]

LOL! The dominant constituency in the Democratic Party today are secularists committed a humanist and/or non-judgmental society. No Democratic politician is going to offend them by engaging in God-Talk or catering to "religious extremists." That means every one to the right of Barry Lynn.

[Sam the Sham]

Sorry. I should have included Hispanics. And Haitians.

[Servant of the 9]

If you exempt blacks, the Democrats are pure secularists.

There are still a lot of 'Genetic Democrats' in this country. The Democrats that stand out in our minds are the loud secularists, but in the rural South and in working class Catholic parishes there are still a lot of people who vote Democrat without really thinking about it, because their fathers and grandfathers did.

So9

[Sam the Sham]

But on the presidential level these are Reagan Democrats. Their children will be Republicans.

[Irene Adler]

I hope Common Tator will forgive me for paraphrasing one of his most interesting statements: if the media spend lots of time writing articles telling Kerry what he needs to do to win, then he isn't winning, and they all know it. That's what I have been seeing an awful lot of lately. This article is just one more example.