Liddy Dole, Republican senator from North Carolina, wants people to vote against her opponent because the opponent accepted money from godless supporters. Sounds unbelievable but it's true - you can look it up. It would be horrific enough if Dole wanted to condemn her opponent because she is not a Christian, but how ghastly to consider that Dole perceives even taking a contribution from non-believers as an effective (if fascist) appeal. Is this kind of Christian hate message unique to a state like North Carolina, or might it play elsewhere? (Let's hope it backfires in North Carolina.)
It's even more alarming that neither candidate for president or any other national office has seen fit to champion the importance of separation of church and state, nor otherwise explained why keeping "faith" or "supernatural beliefs" and public policy separate is important to our democracy and our freedoms. Rob Boston of Americans United noted that throughout the 2008 campaign, church-state separation has been "the constitutional principle that dare not speak its name.
For decades, many enthusiasts for the GOP have thought of it as "God's Own Party," but many still have "higher" but still secular better expectations for the other side. Republicans are currently hopelessly dominated by the Christian Right - three of the contenders for the party's nomination bragged about non-belief in the science of evolution and Sarah Palin was surely picked for the VP spot to fire up the evangelical base. The Republican Bush Administration has pushed religion for eight years -- the wall of separation in America today is in worse shape than the dykes around New Orleans before the arrival of Katrina. (Ooops, I meant to say the dikes are in worse shape. I have no idea about the shape of dykes then or now, but I hope they are in excellent condition.)
Alas, during the primary campaign, the two leading Democrats professed religiousity as strengths of their candidacy. Hillary said, "works without faith cannot be sustainedand Barack proclaim himself "a devout Christian, adding that "secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.
Wrong about what? Certainly not the Constitution.
Both Obama and McCain support so-called "faith-based initiatives," a code phrase for using tax monies for religious purposes. Until the "election" of Bush in 2000, there were no "faith-based initiatives" channeling public funds to religious charities. Congress never approved this church-state violation, nor could it legally do so. (Such a change would require ammending the Constitution.) The assaults to the wall of separation should stop now, or as soon as the theologian-in-chief Bush is out of office in January.
The low point of the 2008 campaign, prior to Liddy Dole's "you took money from atheists" charge, occurred when the presidential candidates participated in a godfest public forum. Hosted by a religious zealot named Rick Warren, the faith forum took place at Warren's televangelist Saddleback Church. Televised nationally, each candidate tried to outdo the other regarding his Christian bona fides. It was an embarrassment to the nation's reputation.
According to the Center for Inquiry, politicians do not have to abandon rationality and the Constitution to win elections. In 2006, "Democrats attracted 67 percent of the vote among the secular and unchurched and just 28 percent among white evangelicals...Presidential candidates campaigning on their piety threaten to estrange the 43 percent of Americans who are unchurched and the 16 percent who have no religious preference or live without faith." (Source:The Campaign for Secularism. The Editors, Council for Secular Humanism, November 3, 2008.)
Let's remind politicians at all levels of the First Amendment language that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religionnor shall any "religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
I join the Council in calling for a campaign to recognize the secular basis of our Constitution.
