The "Religion Divide"

Today, William Safire writes,

With the year 2004 still in its diaper, a spacecraft aptly named Stardust, launched five years ago, scooped up a shovelful of dust from the nucleus of the comet Wild 2 a quarter of a billion miles away. If it brings back even a thimbleful of these first materials from deep space two years from now, we may learn whether comet dust contains the organic molecules necessary for life — which would be evidence that comets are universal messengers of life-producing chemicals.

How very secular of him to say so. (He goes on to apologize for misquoting the Bible.)

This, while we are increasingly told in the news of a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans over religion. In "The God Gulf", Nicholas Kristof writes:

America is riven today by a "God gulf" of distrust, dividing churchgoing Republicans from relatively secular Democrats. A new Great Awakening is sweeping the country, with Americans increasingly telling pollsters that they believe in prayer and miracles, while only 28 percent say they believe in evolution. All this is good news for Bush Republicans, who are in tune with heartland religious values, and bad news for Dean Democrats who don't know John from Job.

To me, the notion that only 28% of the public believes in evolution - a percentage that obviously includes the very conservative Mr. Safire - is more of an indictment of our nation's educational system than it is evidence of a "God gulf". Also, the term "relatively" is somewhat misleading - it is possible to be religious while being skeptical of claimed miracles and while believing in evolution. (It is also possible to be deeply moral and ethical without being religious, and many secular movements have helped advance and protect rights and freedoms we now see as integral to U.S. culture.)

Kristof continues,

So expect Republicans to wage religious warfare by trotting out God as the new elephant in the race, and some Democrats to respond with hypocrisy, by affecting deep religious convictions. This campaign could end up as a tug of war over Jesus.

It is a mistake for a relatively secular person to claim a religious awakening on the campaign trail, as such conversions do not seem genuine. But note that it apparently is not hypocrisy to abuse God's name, and to espouse a religious fervor that in many cases seems to end the second the speaker leaves the stage - in order to try to win elections - apparently that's just good Republican politics. (Granted, Kristof does take on Bush for some of his more ludicrous statements on religion - "To me, nonetheless, it seems hypocritical of Mr. Bush to claim (as he did in the last campaign) that Jesus is his favorite philosopher and then to finance tax breaks for the rich by cutting services for the poor" - but even there the hypocrisy cited is not in the abuse of religious belief on the campaign trail, but in the tax cuts).

From my perspective, the "God gulf" is not a natural phenomenon, but results from the intentional manipulation of the public. We are not told of devout Democrats, or the religious values which lead them to their political choices. We are instead told that Democrats are "increasingly secular" because the evangelicals are increasingly Republican. While it is fair to say that the average Democrat is more secular than the average evangelical, the average Democrat is no more secular (and many are far less secular) than Bill Safire. Kristol's own statistics tell us that. If 72% of Americans reject evolution, and the population is relatively split between Democrats and Repubicans, there are far more skeptics of evolution in this nation than there are adherents to the new religion of Republicanism.

Additionally, it is worthy of note that many highly secular people also have highly evolved moral codes, and there is no great secular wish to deprive the rest of the population of their right to worship in the manner of their choosing. Kristof references the message in Cheney's Christmas card and his impression that Bush's religious message is sincere. The notion that being raised in a religious household will somehow cause children to be good, respectful, law-abiding citizens is perhaps called into question by the conduct of the President's own daughters. And what do evangelicals make of Cheney's daughter? The President and Vice President know that they are abusing religion and advancing lies about religion - their own beliefs, and how religion affects family and society - and they do so with the deliberate goal of further dividing this nation against itself... yet it is the Democrats who are accused of hypocrisy?

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