The Election, Religion, and the New York Times

Over the past few months, we have had on Mirror of Justice a conversation about the implications of our shared Catholic faith for political action -- in particular, for voting. We've disagreed but -- with, perhaps, a few exceptions -- have kept things fairly measured. In this respect, the MOJ bloggers come off much, much better than the columnists in today's New York Times. On MOJ, my colleagues who supported Senator Kerry, or opposed President Bush, did so because of concerns about the compatibility of Bush's policies with Catholic Social Teaching. Today's NYT columnists, though, treat us to a frenzy of anti-religious vitriol and snobbery. Garry Wills bemoans "the day the enlightenment went out," asking whether "a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?" and comparing America's "fundamentalist zeal, . . . rage at secularity, religious intolerance, and fear of and hatred for modernity" to the values that are dominant in "the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda." The ever-snarky Maureen Dowd charges:

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Even Tom Friedman, usually a measured and balanced observer, complains that "this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is." He adds, "[m]y problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad."

It strikes me that the content and tone of these and other comments about the recent election reveal that, for many of President Bush's opponents, the motivating concern is not -- as it was for my MOJ colleagues, whose opposition I respect -- a sense of solidarity with the poor, or a desire for the "tranquility of order" that comes with a just peace, or a hope that we can move beyond the death penalty. It is, instead, a knee-jerk cultural prejudice, and a fear that "the Christians are coming!"

Rick

UPDATE: For another screed, check out Eric Alterman's latest, "Welcome to My Nightmare." To be clear: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being extremely disappointed that one's favored candidate lost, or with being concerned that the country appears to be on the wrong track.