God and politics

Lindsay Beyernstein at Majikthise writes on John Edwards' recent interview concerning his religious beliefs:

Edwards isn't afraid to stress the Christian moral imperative of providing for the poor. Good for him.

Still, I wish that Democrats like Edwards who are devout Christians would go occasionally on the offensive against right wing hypocrites who claim to be Christian while abandoning the poor.

It's important to say that you believe that serving the poor is a core moral precept
of Christianity. I want to hear devout Democrats take it to the next level and accuse self-professed Republicans of being apostates and hypocrites when they ignore poverty or otherwise flout uncontroversial Christian moral precepts.

I do agree with Lindsay that Christian Democrats need to stand up for their beliefs, recognizing God's call to care for the poor. Apparently all those White, Republican Evangelicals out there were too busy trying to prove that you would go to hell for faggotry that they forgot that their Messiah filled pages with a message of social justice.

But I disagree with Lindsay for her praise of Edwards. In my mind, Edwards is conceding far too much to the Christian Right by talking about his religious beliefs: that is, he is conceding their right to bring religious beliefs into the political domain in the first place. All those Democrat candidates out there trumpeting god and appearing at prayer breakfasts, and thanking Jesus are allowing their right wing counterparts to set the terms for the debate.

I wish Edwards, Clinton, Obama, etc. would all just shut the hell up about God. Who cares! It's not relevant. Stop trying to pander. It only appears phony, staged and it annoys the hell out of me because it dilutes what might otherwise be a perfectly good message (well, at least in the case of Edwards - I have nothing now to say about the message of Clinton and Obama).

Christian Democrats should make a connection between their political and religious beliefs: in church or Sunday School. Not on television or at a political debate or anywhere else as part of a campaign strategy.

I want to see a candidate with enough balls to go through an entire campaign not mentioning god once - whatever their religious beliefs. That would be a real victory.