DETROIT -- As people flock to Christmas gatherings -- or holiday parties, if you prefer -- many will adhere to that old saw never to discuss politics and religion in polite company. Frankly, few subjects are more interesting. Toss in the topics of food and sex, lace it with a little alcohol, and your chances of having an entertaining conversation increase considerably.
While the religion-and-politics taboo remains in force in etiquette guides, there are no such restraints found in contemporary American politics, especially in that revival tent of religious fervor and intolerance known as the Republican Party.
The founders who shaped our Constitution wanted to keep religious loyalty tests far away from public life. The people who fostered the philosophy and wrote the words embodied in the Declaration of Independence and fundamental laws of our nation were -- dare I speak the unholy word -- secularists.
Some of them recognized a deity and saw a divine dimension in existence, but these wise men were nothing like the religious zealots of the early 21st century who brazenly want their faith branded on their political party and the affairs of government.
The secularists wanted no religious belief to be a qualification for holding public office. In crafting Article VI of the Constitution, they used explicit language: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
James Madison described the provision as "one of the glories of the new constitution." In "The Federalist Papers," Madison wrote of an inclusiveness in public office that was wide in scope and now is widely forgotten, especially in the Senate and the Republican Party: "The door of the Federal government is open to merit of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether old or young and without regard to poverty or wealth, or any profession of religious faith."
To get ahead in the GOP these days, it is important to be a wealthy native professing a Christian religious faith. Mike Huckabee, now the leading Republican presidential candidate in polls in Iowa, sells himself as a "Christian leader" who speaks "the language of Zion." The former Arkansas governor is first and foremost Rev. Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. He is forthright about his religious beliefs, proclaiming in a TV ad in Iowa, "Faith doesn't just influence me; it really defines me."
Huckabee sees his expanding support and climb in the polls as divinely inspired. He told "Newsweek" magazine, "There is one explanation for it, and it's not a human one."
For all his self-proclaimed virtue, Huckabee has had some ethical lapses pivoting around the deadly sin of greed. To supplement his salary as Arkansas lieutenant governor -- a paltry $25,452 -- Huckabee and his supporters organized a non-profit organization dubbed Action America. The group raised funds for Huckabee to travel around the country preaching conservative causes to other ministers, organizing them politically. For his work, Huckabee raked in $61,000 plus expenses. The slush fund existed until Huckabee became governor. Where the money came from was largely a mystery until "Newsweek" uncovered how the tobacco industry, specifically R.J. Reynolds, was a big source of cash for Huckabee's sermon stipends.
In his preaching, Huckabee frequently attacked then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan. You see, Hillary wanted the tobacco industry to pay more to cover the health care costs of the millions of American smokers who got hooked on the addictive products outfits like R.J. Reynolds manufactured. J.J. Vigneault, a former consultant to R.J. Reynolds, helped Huckabee create the non-profit and the political strategy that benefited the tobacco companies while lining Huckabee's pockets.
Vigneault told The New York Times how Huckabee promoted citizen activism. "We would give him the Congressional Districts to go to," Vigneault said. "And he would put together the pastoral meetings. He would talk about the way the health plan wasn't good. The goal was for the pastors to go to their churches and mobilize their congregations to say they are opposed to the plan."
Huckabee's campaign now claims the candidate did not know tobacco money was behind his preaching tour. "There's no way he could not have known the money was from R.J. Reynolds," Vigneault told the Times. "If he's saying he didn't know about the Reynolds money, he's being less than truthful."
Huckabee's principal rival in the Republican religious war is Willard "Mitt" Romney. Huckabee coyly deflects the question of whether he -- like many evangelicals -- considers Romney's Mormon faith a cult. Huckabee says he doesn't judge other religions.
Romney is doing his best to quell suspicions about Mormonism and what his faith would bring to the presidency. I don't think Romney, or anyone else, should be judged on their faith.
To buy into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- L.D.S. or Mormonism -- you have to accept this story: The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in Palmyra and directed him to two golden plates containing the words of the Book of Mormon, the teachings that became the foundation of a new faith.
As a Catholic, I believe many things many people consider equally implausible. I have no problem with Romney's faith. It is Romney's jihad on secularism and his bigotry toward Islam that should offend us all. Romney recently conflated religion and freedom in a way that defies the principles upon which the nation was built. Romney bellowed, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. ... Freedom and religion endure together or perish alone." Balderdash.
Romney warns us America must be defended from the evil embodied in non-believers. The founders' notion of the separation of church and state has no place in Romney's world. The secularists are out to get us, Romney assures us: "They seek to remove from public domain any acknowledgement of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong." Romney and others in the right-wing chorus have created this myth of creeping secularism as another bogeyman.
In May, a Pakistani-American businessman asked Romney at a fund-raiser if he would consider appointing a Muslim to his cabinet. Mansoor Ijaz told the Christian Science Monitor Romney replied, "Based on the number of American Muslims (as a percentage) of our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But, of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels in my administration." How generous. Romney may not have been aware that there are more than 7 million Muslims in the United States, and only 5.5 million Mormons. Mitt's lucky Richard Nixon wasn't using the "number" rule when he appointed George Romney, Mitt's father, as Housing and Urban Development secretary.
I offer my own religious test for candidates: They must renounce war as an instrument of foreign policy, particularly the pre-emptive military violence used in Iraq and contemplated for Iran.
They must oppose the death penalty, the barbaric government-sanctioned murder that is both costly and ineffective in deterring crime. They must embrace what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadine called "the seamless garment of life."
They must oppose what my friend Bishop Thomas Gumbleton calls "the violence of unjust economic structures." Those are the policies that exploit the poor and weak to enrich the powerful.
My religious test requires tolerance and inclusion of non-believers and secularists in every aspect of public life. In their tests, Huckabee and Romney only require a proclamation of faith in Christ.
Mine is far more demanding.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 18 2007 |