UNSCRAMBLING THE EGGS

W.'s Christian Nation: How Bush promotes religion and erodes the separation of church and state (Chris Mooney, 6.1.03, American Prospect)

In November of 1992, shortly after Bill Clinton was elected president, a telling controversy arose at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association. When a reporter asked the governors how their party could both satisfy the demands of Christian conservatives and also maintain a broad political coalition, Mississippi's Kirk Fordice took the opportunity to pronounce America a "Christian nation." "The less we emphasize the Christian religion," Fordice declared, "the further we fall into the abyss of poor character and chaos in the United States of America." Jewish groups immediately protested Fordice's remarks; on CNN's Crossfire, Michael Kinsley asked whether Fordice would also call America a "white nation" because whites, like Christians, enjoy a popular majority. The incident was widely seen as exposing a rift between the divisive Pat Robertson wing of the GOP and the more moderate camp represented by then-President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Fast-forward a decade. Republicans have solved their internal problems, and the party is united under our most prayerful of presidents, the born-again believer George W. Bush. Though not originally the favored candidate of the religious right -- John Ashcroft was -- Bush has played the part well. Virtually his first presidential act was to proclaim a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving; soon he appointed Ashcroft to serve as attorney general. Since then the stream of religiosity from the White House has been continuous. With the help of evangelical speechwriter Michael Gerson, Bush lards his speeches with code words directed at Christian conservatives. In this year's State of the Union address, Bush mentioned the "wonder-working power" of the American people, an allusion to an evangelical Christian song whose lyrics cite the "power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb" -- i.e., Jesus.

Bush also uses his office to promote marriage, charitable choice and school vouchers as conservative Christian policy objectives. Yet he has never endorsed, at least not explicitly, the time-honored religious-right claim that the United States is a Christian nation. Nor has he seconded Pat Robertson's cry that the separation of church and state is "a lie of the left."

Mr. Mooney might prefer that things were otherwise, but the three points here that he seems to find controversial are instead self-evident. America is a nation structured around the ideals of white European Judeo-Christianity and "separation of church and state" is an aconstitutional lie of the Left. There are perfectly legitimate arguments against too direct a mingling of Church and State without resorting to this kind of historical obfuscation. The problem lies in the fundamental unpopularity of such arguments, which leaves secularists no good alternative but to claim to be defending tradition, rather than attacking it.

Yes, government should be essentially secular. No, there should be no established Church and the State should be neutral between various religions or between religious institutions and other types of institutions. But no government can exist in a religious nation without becoming entangled to some degree or another in religious matters, particularly when that government extends its reach into so many areas where it does not belong. If government is to encroach in these realms--marriage, charity, education, etc.--then separation is simply unrealistic. Want separation? Get government out of the social sphere.

MORE:
In Shift, U.S. to Offer Grants to Historic Churches (LAURIE GOODSTEIN and RICHARD W. STEVENSON, May 28, 2003. NY Times)

In a reversal of a longstanding policy, the Bush administration said yesterday that it would allow federal grants to be used to renovate churches and religious sites that are designated historic landmarks.

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton announced the change in an afternoon news conference at the Old North Church in Boston, where in 1775 Paul Revere spotted two lanterns hung to signal the advance of British troops. Ms. Norton said the church, which still houses a congregation, would receive a federal grant of $317,000 to repair windows and make the building more accessible to the public.

"Today we have a new policy that will bring balance to historic preservation and end the discriminatory double standard that has been applied against religious properties," said Ms. Norton, standing below the church's famed steeple.

The decision was the latest step by the White House to remove barriers to government financing of religious organizations, and it received mixed reviews from constitutional experts.

This is a good example of the problem: if the government is to have such programs then religious buildings must be eligible for them just like non-religious buildings. If you don't want to help restore churches, scrap the program. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 28, 2003 9:16 AM