27 Pieces Of Religious Flair, Please

The secular response to the Democrats’ new-found ability to wear their religion on their sleeves like flair on a waitress, is that it may be a smart tactic, it may be good politics, but by Jove (if you’ll excuse my own invocation) it’s irritating as all Hell (again, my apologies).

From Obama’s continued virtuous appearances in churches around the country to Clinton’s proclamations of unshakeable faith (and as Mother Jones suggests, collaborations with folks as diametrically opposed to most of her political positions as Brownback and Santorum), we are sick of it.

As I’ve mentioned before, the US Congress isn’t exactly secular in its composition (although Kent Conrad of North Dakota is a Unitarian, which is about as close to an agnostic as you’re likely to find). Democrats have long declared religious affiliations, but it has rarely been a platform issue for them.

But this new focus on God, Faith & Family is disappointing to the few percent of us in this country who don’t go in for miracles and myths. It simply proves to us that Bush has successfully moved the country so far to the right that the Democrats’ only chance of success is to swing away from their traditional “religion is a personal matter” mantra to God-bothering displays of piety and prayer.

In other words, it seems that our only hope is to take on the Republicans on their own ground.

As I say, this is disappointing because it takes the focus off the real issues, just as the Republicans successfully managed with their God, Guns and Gays platform over the last few years.

Immigration? A religious issue? Clinton described Republican efforts to further criminalize illegal immigration as somehow ostracizing Jesus, while Obama sounded worryingly like Bush, supposedly the Democratic nemesis, with his declaration that “my faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”

A huge dividing line for we atheists (and there are just about enough of us to make a real difference in the election) has traditionally been the dizzying displays of religious fervor of the Republicans on the one side, and the almost reticent attitude of Democrats to discuss their faith on the other.

With this line blurring, and likely to become much more unclear as the election proceeds, have the Democrats won enough religious folks over to counter the inevitable loss of some atheist voters?

Probably. But it doesn’t make me much more optimistic about the decisions that zealots in the White House will make in the future.