Stop the presses. The big fix–And I mean big–is in for next November’s presidential election. Pat Robertson has the inside info, he says, thanks to his personal connection to heaven.
The religious broadcaster and former presidential candidate recently said on his Virginia Beach-based “700 Club” TV program that “I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004” and “[President] George Bush is going to win in a walk.”
Funny, but Robertson’s personal pipeline to the Almighty didn’t help him much when he failed to win the Republican nomination in 1988. What’s changed? I wonder. Maybe he has a broadband connection now.
Still, I don’t want to mess with the man’s predictions. Back in 1998, he declared Florida’s scrubland fires to be God’s retribution for Orlando allowing gay-pride organizations to put up rainbow flags in support of sexual diversity. It turned out that he had warned the city of possible hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks “and possibly a meteor.” So one can only wonder what retribution Robertson expects if voters somehow fail to re-elect Bush. Tornadoes in Illinois? Locusts in Manhattan? A pox on Hollywood?
Or maybe the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, got it right. “Maybe Pat got a message from Karl Rove,” Lynn said, referring to Bush’s chief political adviser. “And thought it was from God.”
President Bush’s pronouncements of religious faith are well-known. He even referred to Jesus Christ as his favorite “philosopher” during the 2000 debates. But, of course, Republican politicians are not alone in playing the God card. Bush, who boldly professes his religious faith, seems to have put Democrats on the defensive, resulting in recent outbursts of religious talk on the left.
Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean has boldly announced his intention to talk about God and Jesus. Not in the Northeast, he said, where “we do not talk openly about religion,” but “in the South,” where, “people do integrate religion openly.”
That new emphasis got off to a shaky start when, after reporters asked his favorite book of the New Testament, he named Job. Dean later returned to reporters, confessing a slight error. Job is in the Old Testament. When reporters asked again his favorite part of the New Testament, he answered: “Anything in the Gospels.”
Lesson No. 1 to aspiring politicians: Before you play the religion card be prepared to play 20 questions with reporters regarding your Bible studies.
Lesson No. 2: Don’t start talking about your religion unless you have thought about it enough to feel really comfortable about it in public. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.
Religion can be a particularly touchy topic for Democrats seeking national office these days. Democratic voters tend to be more religiously diverse than Republicans, who also have a much higher percentage of voters who tell pollsters they regularly attend church.
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As a result, Democratic candidates often find it is prudent to acknowledge a belief in God, but perhaps not too much. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) has received praise and criticism for his unabashed pronouncements of strong belief in his faith, Orthodox Judaism, including his refusals to campaign on the Jewish Sabbath.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) recently reflected on his religious background, although with what seemed to be an almost painful reluctance. In Moline, Ill., for example, he responded to a questioner by noting that he was baptized and confirmed as a Catholic, served as an altar boy and later wore a rosary around his neck during his two tours of duty in Vietnam. He also said he had once considered becoming a priest. But he also noted, “In New England we tend to be more personal in our faith and not throw it at people.”
Good for them, I say. Religion and politics make a volatile mix, as innumerable examples around the world today tragically illustrate.
As a general rule, religion should unite us, not divide us. Government funding for faith-based social service initiatives works, for example, as long as the service providers don’t discriminate unfairly in their hiring or in the people whom they serve. It is when one political party or campaign claims to have God on its side, to the exclusion of all others, that one’s bull-jive detector should start jumping.
That’s why the constitutional separation of church and state is a good thing, not only to protect government from intrusions by religion but also to protect religion from intrusions by government.
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