Matters of faith: January 2008 Archives

The hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church -- you know, that scruple-less group that stands outside soldiers' funerals with signs declaring that the deceased is in hell because America tolerates gays (I think that's the seven degrees of separation excuse, anyway) -- plans to protest Heath Ledger's funeral:

"Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are trying to find out where the 28-year-old actor's funeral will be held and have already made signs to hold outside the Oscars that read 'God Hates Fags and Fag Enablers,' 'Heath in Hell' and 'Mourn for Your Sins,' Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the church's controversial founder Pastor Fred Phelps, told ABCNEWS.com.

Though Ledger was not gay, the church believes he 'misused the giant megaphone given to him by God Almighty to speak the truth about fags,' Phelps-Roper said, and instead 'used his position of prominence to say God is a liar and that homosexuality is not an abomination.'"

Rumor has it the funeral will be held in Ledger's native Australia, so if the Westboros can figure out where that is in relation to Topeka, I hope they meet with a few well-aimed boomerangs.

More on Heath's death from our entertainment guru Greg Hernandez at Out in Hollywood...

Kudos to Jonathan for his excellent post on identity politics. I think the distinction he makes between letting identity politics dictate whom we'll consider voting for -- as opposed to whom we'll vote against -- is key.

I can see why Mormons would be attracted to Romney, the way African-Americans may be attracted to Obama, or evangelicals to Huckabee, or even women to Hillary. Each of these groups believes -- rightly, to varying degrees -- that it has been kept on the fringes of society, disrespected or even discriminated against by the political establishment/mainstream/majority. For each group, the election of one of its own to the presidency would confer a sense of having "made it," and having overcome its outsider status.

No doubt, this attracted many Catholics to JFK. Surely it's what makes Antonio Villaraigosa so popular among Latinos. I even remember back in 1984, hearing Italian-American groups gush over Walter Mondale because he had named Geraldine Ferraro as a running-mate.

This is natural, and dare I say, not all bad. It's the melting pot in action. And it also tends to dissipate over time.

The real trouble, as Jonathan notes, is not when people want to see a member of their group succeed, but when they refuse to consider members of certain other groups due to their own bigotry. Romney, no doubt, has received this bigoted treatment from some evangelicals/fundamentalists. (Should he get the nomination, he can expect much more from various secular liberals.) But by far, the biggest victim of this negative kind of identity politics has been Huckabee. I have heard multiple intelligent, educated people say they would never vote for him because of his religion -- a statement that seldom arouses any controversy, but imagine if it were made about, oh, Mike Bloomberg or Keith Ellison.

The other dangerous side of identity politics is when it is used as a cheap campaign wedge. Think of the Clinton campaign's efforts to portray all criticisms of Hillary as sexist. Or think of the Obama Spanish-language radio ads that claim, "Hillary Clinton does not respect our people."

This is dangerous talk which poisons our democracy -- and it's far more destructive than members of a put-upon group pulling for one of their own.

I just wish there was a good explanation for this that doesn't indicate religion voting for religion:

"Mormons comprised 26 percent of those attending Nevada's GOP caucuses, and 95 percent voted for Romney. ... Half of Romney's overall vote in Nevada came from Mormons."

What's getting me -- and perhaps someone more familiar with Mormonism can offer insight into this -- is that Catholics don't just vote for Catholics (47 percent voted for John Kerry), Jews don't automatically vote for Jews (79 percent voted for Gore-Lieberman in 2000), and even just 22 percent of evangelicals in Nevada voted for Mike Huckabee. So I don't think I've ever seen such a religiously loyal vote like this.

NOTE: Over at the WaPo's The Trail blog, the mere mention of these stats has turned into a referendum on religious bigotry. *sigh*

Yesterday was Religious Freedom Day. You might have overlooked it, but President George W. Bush didn't. He even issued a Religious Freedom Day proclamation -- from that bastion of religious freedom, Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, Bridget, Jonathan, and I had an interesting discussion on how relevant a candidate's religious views are -- or aren't -- to the campaign. Specifically, we were talking about Mike Huckabee, who alone among the presidential candidates is asked about the tenets of his faith, including such matters as who goes to heaven or hell, and what's a real Christian anyway?

Well, imagine if we learned that Huckabee currently attends a church where the following are preached:

• A commitment to a "White Value System"
• Pledge Allegiance to All White Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace the White Value System

And what's more, what if Huckabee's church had named, oh, David Duke as its man of the year for 2007, saying he "truly epitomized greatness," and praising him for his "integrity and honesty."

Think that would raise some public concern?

If so, then perhaps it's time everyone stopped asking Huckabee about his religious preferences, and instead turned their attention to Barack Obama. Those quotes above come not from Huckabee's church, which has a history of commitment to racial equality, but to Barack Obama's -- I just substituted the word "White" for "Black" and David Duke's name for Louis Farrakhan's.

As London's Spectator explains in this article, Obama's parish, Trinity United Church of Christ, and its pastor, spout some rather odious racialist rhetoric. And as Richard Cohen notes in his weekly column (which will appear in tomorrow's Daily News), Obama's church magazine recently honored Farrakahn, the rabid race-baiter and anti-Semite whose own church's theology holds that white people are a race of devils created by an evil scientist.

Now, in yesterday's discussion, Jonathan raised the remote possibility that someone who thinks members of X or Y religion won't be saved might, in public office, not treat those people very well. It's a fair point, in theory and in history, but as I responded, there's no evidence for that concern among modern American Baptist leaders. Moreover, who goes to heaven is not the president's decision to make -- so his opinion on the matter is irrelevant to our election.

A far more troubling concern, though, is a would-be president who belongs to a church that espouses arguably racist or anit-Semitic views. Obama claims to not share these views, and if presssed, he will no doubt explicitly distance himself from them. (He'll probably also condemn his pastor's visit, with Farrakhan, to Muammar el-Qaddafi in 1984.) But is that good enough, when he hasn't protested these odious views all the years he was sitting in the pews?

Would it be enough if Huckabee attended a similar, white church?

Or is it only conservative Christians whose religious preferences are scrutinized this way?

How to vie for evangelical votes: Hit the pulpit!

Mike Huckabee did so Sunday, delivering not a political message to one of those megachurches but a regular ol' sermon, returning to his preacher roots in hopes that pastors would tell their flocks to flock to the polls. His message? Being good ain't enough to get into heaven. From the AP:

"Asked by reporters later if he thinks only Christians will go to heaven, Huckabee refused to say. He often says that as a minister, he joked that he doesn't even believe all Baptists are going to heaven.

'I'm going to stick to the things that make it critical for me to be president of the United States,' Huckabee said Sunday. 'I have deep convictions about who goes and who doesn't, but as far as who makes that decision, it isn't me, it's God. I'm going to leave that up to him.'

He argued that the Constitution forbids a political candidate from being subjected to a religious litmus test. And he claimed to be the only candidate who gets asked about specific tenets of his faith."

A few thoughts:

• If you're going to stick to things that are critical to being president, pulpit preaching or salvation predictions ain't included.
  
• He's the only candidate being questioned on his faith? Is he SERIOUS??
  
• As long as he keeps bringing the faith up, I'd like to know if he thinks Catholics and Jews are damned. Sorry, but no man who tries to play casting director for the Pearly Gates would ever get my vote for president of the United States.
  

As long as Huckabee is using the pulpit as a campaign tool, then questions about how he'd view his potential constituents are fair game.