Religion may preach peace and tolerance,
yet it's hard to think of anything that - because of human malpractice
- has been more linked to violence and malice around the world.
And now as we enter a new campaign year, it's time to brace
ourselves for a new round of religious warfare and hypocrisy
at home.
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.
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.
Over the holidays, Vice President Dick Cheney's Christmas card
symbolized all that troubles me about the way politicians treat
faith - not as a source for spiritual improvement, but as a
pedestal to strut upon. Mr. Cheney's card is dominated by a
quotation by Benjamin Franklin: "And if a sparrow cannot
fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an
empire can rise without His aid?" It's hard not to see
that as a boast that the U.S. has become the global superpower
because God is on our side. And "empire" suggests
Iraq: is Mr. Cheney contending that in the dispute over the
latest gulf war, God was pulling for the White House and fulminating
at Democrats and others in Beelzebub's camp?
Moreover, Mr. Cheney's card wrenches Ben Franklin's quotation
from its context and upends the humility that Franklin stood
for. If you read the full speeches Franklin gave to the Constitutional
Convention, including the one with the sparrow line, you see
that Franklin is not bragging that God is behind him but rather
the opposite - warning that the framers face so many difficulties
they need all the help they can get, including prayer.
Meanwhile, Howard Dean is grasping for faith in a way that
is just as tasteless as Mr. Cheney's Christmas card. Dr. Dean
bragged to reporters that he knows much about the Bible - and
proceeded to say that his favorite New Testament book is Job.
Anyone who cites Job as a New Testament book should be scolded
not just for religious phoniness but also for appalling ignorance
of Western civilization - on a par with Mr. Bush's calling Greeks"Grecians."
After talking to Mr. Bush's longtime acquaintances, I'm convinced
that his religious convictions are deeply felt and fairly typical
in the U.S. Mr. Bush says the jury is still out on evolution,
but he has also said that he doesn't take every word in the
Bible as literally true. 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. If Dr. Dean should
read up on Job, Mr. Bush should take a look at the Sermon on
the Mount.
With Karl Rove's help, Mr. Bush has managed a careful balance,
maintaining good ties with the Christian right without doing
so publicly enough to terrify other voters. For example, Mr.
Bush doesn't refer in his speeches to Jesus or Christ, but he
sends reassuring messages to fellow evangelicals in code ("wonder-working
power" in his State of the Union address last year alluded
to a hymn).
Republicans are in trouble when the debate moves to the issues
because their policies often favor a wealthy elite. But they
have the advantage when voters choose based on values, for here
Republicans are populists and Democrats more elitist.
As we move into the religious wars, I wish we could recall
how Abe Lincoln achieved moral clarity without moral sanctimony.
Though often criticized for not being religious enough, Lincoln
managed both of the key kinds of morality in personal behavior,
which conservatives care about, and in seeking social justice,
which liberals focus on. To me, each seems incomplete without
the other.
Or there's the real Ben Franklin - not the one counterfeited
by Mr. Cheney - who warned each of the framers of the Constitution
to "doubt a little of his own infallibility." That
would be a useful text for Mr. Cheney's Christmas card next
year.
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To succeed on this quiz, you needed mastery of the three criteria
of a thesis: an arguable assertion, clear and precise wording,
and appropriate qualification. The quiz also required you to
find the thesis, and then explain, specifically, how Krsitoff's
thesis did or did not meet the criteria. This evaluation element
of the question had several possibly correct answers. What mattered
most was the quality of your analysis and explanation. (You
could easily have argued, for example, that the problem with
Kristoff's thesis was not a qualification problem but a lack
of precision in his choice of the prhase "religious warfare").
Rubric Criteria: the student's answer...
- correctly identifies Kristoff's thesis
- demonstrates an understanding of three criteria
- explains how Kristoff does or does not meet the criteria
- has clear prose without grammar, punctuation, usage, or
spelling errors
Grading
- an A(.46 / .5) answer meets all four criteria
- a B (.43 / .5) meets three of four criteria
- a C (.35 / .5) meets two of four criteria
- a D (.3 / .5) meets one of the four criteria
- an F (.25 / 5 or lower) meets none of the criteria
