Monday, July 19, 2004

Questions about the Separation between Church and State are kicking into high gear...and well they should!

I certainly don't see a problem with churches trying to get their congregations registered to vote -- even when they do so to promote religious value voting. I don't like it, but I don't see a problem. What I do object to is any church or religious group trying to make one candidate out to be more, uh, not religious, let's say holy than the other. When they start attacking the religious values of one candidate or another, they begin to cross the ad hominem line.

When one party endorses the view that another party is less worthy or less, God forbid, holy (save for an Atheist party, perhaps), then they are over the line and slogging through no-man's land.

Well, one party isn't doing it to another party, but you're seeing a lot of sanctioned speech about John Kerry's catholicism, and how that relates to his idea of values. I think politics are getting dangerously close to this line. My biggest fear is that as they approach the line more and more, it will lose its significance. Religious underpinings will become commonplace in the political discourse.