Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Oh, get a room!

Maybe in a nice co-ed monastary somewhere.

That's the best advice I can offer to Steven Waldman and Amy Sullivan. Not to be bested by Ms. Sullivan's claim to a big scoop on Kerry's supposed last minute decision to indulge in some religious language during his acceptance speech (you know, the kind of religious speech that we've documented has been part of his campaign addresses for months), Steven Waldman weighs in at Slate, proclaiming that
"...in the last few weeks, the Kerry campaign has shifted gears. The Religification of John Kerry has begun. He started lacing his speeches with a Bible reference here and there. He released a TV ad discussing his faith, and just days before the convention began, the campaign hired a new director of religious outreach.
That would be, umm, 96 days before the convention began, as a matter of fact. A number of days most of us would describe as "months."

Some people just can't be satisfied, though. Waldman writes...
Kerry's certainly not in the clear on this yet. He can quote the Bible to tee up every new tax credit proposal and he still won't win over many conservative Catholics who loathe his position on abortion, especially partial-birth abortion. Many religious voters are motivated by ideology more than theology and will find Kerry too liberal regardless of how often he prays the rosary.
Yep, people who don't support John Kerry because of his positions on issues (and Waldman reveals much by his use of the perjorative term 'partial-birth abortion' to describe late term medical procedures, a term that physicians eschew as unscientific and inaccurate) won't be voting for him this year, regardless of the depth of his religious fervor or his willingness to express it. And this is surprising because...?

And of course, Waldman sums it all up by damning not only Kerry, but the entire Democratic party, with faint praise.
But on balance, Kerry took a major step toward convincing people that it was OK to believe in God and Democrats at the same time.
So, Steve, who is it that needs convincing? You? Certainly not me, since I've believed in God and Democrats as long as I can remember. That's true of most of the Democrats I've known over the course of 40 years or so of Party activism. The whole notion of Democrats as irreligious, or anti-religion, is nothing but Republican slander, and people like Waldman and Sullivan do a particular disservice to both Democrats and the faith community in spreading it.

So tell me, Steve, Amy, who would Jesus slander?

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