There's that old adage about not bringing up politics or religion, and based on some of the reactions to Melanie's most recent thread (below), some might believe that even on Daily Kos it would be best if never the twain should meet. But Melanie is correct, and everyone agrees, that religion will play a role in next years' election.
As some of you have picked up over months of seeing my postings on the comment boards, I do campaigns and have worked with many candidates. Melanie suggested this morning that Daily Kos readers "could stand to hear from you about how you would advise Dem candidates to address faith communities." I'm flattered by her suggestion, but I think it's an important subject to which I probably couldn't do justice. But I do have a couple thoughts.
A candidate I'm working with spent yesterday morning worshiping with three different congregations. She attended mass in her home parish, and then worshiped with two Baptist congregations. She didn't represent herself as a Baptist, and I doubt the members of these congregations saw her as an imposter or an interloper. When politicians just happen to appear before a congregation at election time, especially if it's a black church and the politician appears to have never been in a church except in the months of October or November, there is occasional and fully warranted skepticism about that person's intentions for being in that church on that morning. But in most cases, especially if the politician doesn't breeze in and out like a rock star shouting "helloooo, Cleveland," the congregants appreciate the attention and the seriousness with which the politician is treating their faith and their community of worship.
I'm often struck by how most discussions of politics and religion revolve around whether religion should be in government. From our largely agnostic or deistic founding fathers through the deeply religious but non-denominational Abraham Lincoln, the Roman Catholic JFK, and the observant Jew and shoulda-been Vice President Joe Lieberman, there has been a consensus against letting religion impinge upon government. (Obviously George W. Bush rejected this ten score and fourteen year consensus.) But what many on the left often miss is that within many communities of faith it is acceptable and even encouraged to allow politics to enter into community worship.
Politicians will seek out just about any way to connect with the citizens whose votes they seek. You'll see politicians at community fairs and high school football games, holiday parades and ethnic festivals, chamber of commerce receptions and labor union picnics. If it's OK for politicians to attend these functions and events, why shouldn't they visit with people when they are assembled in a community of faith?
Many people on the left seem hung up on whether it's inauthentic to visit a community of worship whose faith you don't share. I think that's misguided. One should not compromise political and moral beliefs just to troll for votes, as it could be argued was done when Bush went to Bob Jones University and refused to criticize the schools' anti-Catholicism and segregationist policies. But one need not be a believer to feel and convey respect for the role of faith in the life of an individual or community. I think of the poem "Church Going" by Phillip Larkin, in which the narrator, presumably a non-believer, enters an empty church believing this is a place for hectoring sermons, but he ultimately reflects on how it's a place of much greater importance:
For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never will be obsolete,
Since someone will for ever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.
Religious faith is a vital piece of many people's lives. To dismiss with disdain the role of faith in their lives is to hold ones fellow citizens at arms-length. Progressives do not have to embrace the faith of the people with whom they seek common cause, nor do they need to ignore the aspects of the denominational doctrines that they oppose. But to disrespect the importance of faith is ultimately to disrespect our fellow citizens for whom faith provides meaning, purpose and guidance to their lives.