Ronald Reagan famously said in 1962, "I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me." I begin to feel that way when I read stuff like this. It's a profile of Howard Dean's chief of staff, Leah Daughtry, who is Pentecostal preacher. (Part-time, that is.) While I find her belief in divine healing and speaking in tongues to be ridiculous, her religious convictions are her own. What irritates me is her patronizing anti-intellectual tone. With regards to faith healing, she says:
“The eggheads will say her chemotherapy worked, but everyone who uses chemotherapy isn’t cured.”
Honestly, I don't know if she means that chemotherapy doesn't work for anyone or if it only works for some and not others. So, a member of her church gets breast cancer which is treated by chemo. This woman then goes to church and does the whole laying of hands or whatever it is Ms. Daughtry does. Cancer goes into remission and Daughtry claims that her ceremony did the trick. If religion weren't involved, we'd be calling Daughtry a confidence trickster.
She addresses the issue of her rising prominence in the media by saying:
“The intellectuals, the egghead types — Pentecostalism is incomprehensible to them. They don’t understand the spirit-driven. I can make the trains run on time, and they have a hard time reconciling that with my religion.”
Here's what I got out of the article besides the fact that Ms. Daughtry likes to insult doctors and other educated people: the Democratic party is out to show Americans that they can imitate the Republicans, that they're all faithful too. They want to follow in the footsteps of the politicos who convened Congress to meddle in the affairs of the Schiavo family, fund abstinence education that doesn't work, etc.
This attempt to out religious the Republicans is exactly what I don't want to see the Dems doing. The article notes the role of John Kelly, a man who trains "the communications directors of the party’s state organizations in approaching the religious media".
And when in April the National Catholic Register published an op-ed article headlined, “The Soul of the Democratic Party Is Still Secular,” Kelly made sure the paper ran his reply: “Democrats have been and continue to be people of faith. . . . The core values of the Democratic Party are in line with key Catholic teachings — creating a society that meets the needs of the poor, caring for the sick, supporting families, promoting peace and sustaining our environment for the health and life of us all.”
No, the proper reply is to say "You're absolutely right that the Party is secular. Thus was the intention of all that 'shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…' business in that thing called the Constitution. Separation of church and state benefits both." But you can't court the votes of people who think this country is or was a "Christian nation" and want to enforce their version of Christianity by saying that.
Thankfully the Democratic Party isn't going to nominate Ms. Daughtry for president. Unfortunately, their nominee, Barack Obama, prays that he will be an "an instrument of God's will" and has said "I am confident we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth". Honestly, I don't want a Kingdom nor a kingdom. We got rid of kings back in the 18th century and I am not keen on a president attempting to move the country towards his particular notion of a "Kingdom" involving his chosen deity. This is exactly the kind of crap I expect to hear from the Right and it worries me to hear the Democratic presidential nominee sounding exactly like a Republican. I see little difference between these statements and those of George W. Bush who sees himself as Yahweh's messenger boy bringing democracy at the barrel of a gun.
The Democrats want to portray the party as being a big tent. If all this rhetoric is simply about courting voters, then it's deceitful; However, this could be a genuine move to infuse the party with religion and not just appear so. Either way, I'm not so sure I want to be in that tent.
2 comments:
Agreed. Though I tend to vote heavily Democratic, I am not officially affiliated with the party--and things like this are exactly why.
I suspect that the party is caving somewhat to the sound beatings they've been getting from the Republican party for some years now. Which is sad. The lesson they should have learned is that people want them to further distance themselves from the policies and practices of the right, not to more closely emulate them. It's ridiculous.
I'm not officially affiliated with the party either. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lost cause at the federal level. It's about money and lobbyists and not the nebulous "average" person. The local level, however, can be a different story.
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