Much chest-beating and rending-of-garments has been done of late of the need of Democrats to be comfortable "speaking the language of faith" to voters. In an
earlier dairy, the author complained about how American filmmakers couldn't put together a religious-themed movie, whereas it was (it seemed) easy for low-budget British filmmakers to do so.
I commented that the reason for this is that American scriptwriters are just plain ignorant, and it made me think, "politicians don't need to necessarily
be Christians or evangelicals, but they have to know whom they're dealing with and understand their language."
I'm going to be practical about this and try to come up with a guide for "What Democrats Need to Know About Faith."
Look, I think it's ridiculous to expect politicians to "pander to religious people" or try to pretend to be evangelicals when they're really not. What politicians
should do is be familiar with the common vocabularly that Americans speak when it comes to religion, and I want to describe what they need to know, so they don't look foolish and can be comfortable with Americans of many kinds. At first, I was going to list points about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but I don't feel qualified to list what politicians should know and be able to talk about when it comes to Judaism and Islam, so if anyone wants to add something, go ahead.
On Christianity:
- You don't have to know all of the books of the Bible, but you should recognize which books go in which section
- Understand what the rapture is and why a minority of Christians believe in the concept
- Be familiar with, at least, the titles of popular protestant hymns - Even if you're not a politician, Bush's speeches become a bit more intelligible.
- Have some concept of the basic differences between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians
- Know why you shouldn't go up to take communion in a Catholic or Orthodox Church if you're not Catholic or Orthodox
- Have a feel for which Christian group predominates in which foreign country
- Recognize the bible verse John 3:16 and understand why it gets cited by evangelicals so often.
- Have a feel for the sin-repent-saved dynamic and importance of giving "personal testimony" to evangelicals (Clinton was the master of this one)
- Bush keeps talking about the "Culture of Life" as though it refers only to abortion. The original Catholic view was much more all-ecompassing. Understand it and learn to take back the Culture of Life for liberals
This isn't anything about what a politician should believe. It's about a kind of "shared vocabulary" that politicians need to have with the voters-- and hopefully not make any major "religion gaffes." The media will be looking for every possible slip-up that a Democrat could make when it comes to religion, so they need to be on guard.