WHILE THE LEFT WATCHES THE NEOCONS, THE THEOCONS ARE IN CONTROL:

Bush Brought a Gift for the Pope: The Alliance Between Catholics and Evangelicals: It is an absolute novelty in the history of the United States, and has been consolidated with the present administration. The key role of Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus in the inner circle of the White House (Sandro Magister, www.chiesa)

The conjunction between evangelicals and Catholics, in the United States, began ten years ago with a joint document with an unequivocal title: Evangelicals and Catholics together. For the former, at the head of the dialogue there was Charles Colson, a former assistant to Nixon and destroyed with him by the Watergate scandal, then born again in the faith. For the Catholics, there was Fr. Neuhaus, with the support of cardinal O'Connor and the future cardinal Dulles.

A book by Neuhaus had made a great impression on the evangelicals: it was The Naked Public Square, an analysis of the growing disappearance of religion from public life. The book brought to light the fact that there are many traits common to both Catholic and evangelical thought, and that some of them can be put into practice.

Since then, the evangelicals have made great progress. They are the fastest-growing Christian group in the world. In the United States, they now make up 43 percent of the population, according to a survey by Gallup. Their influence has been decisive in many of the choices of the Bush presidency: from support of the family to the fight against abortion; from the defense of religious liberty in the world to the battle against the modern slave trade; from peace in Sudan to the war in Iraq and more decisive support than ever for Israel. In foreign policy, within the historic confrontation between the "realists" and the "idealists," they have aligned themselves with the latter. The doctrine of the exportation of democracy is typically evangelical. And Bush is evangelical when he says, "I believe freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world."

And so, slowly, the evangelicals have met and associated with the neocons, with Jews like Michael Horowitz, a great defender of persecuted Christians throughout the world, and with Catholics. Or better, with a current of Catholicism that was marginal at first, but is now more consistent and authoritative.

In an interview with Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times, on May 31, 2004, Fr. Neuhaus said: "It is an extraordinary realignment that if continues is going to create a very different kind of configuration of Christianity in America."

Meanwhile, the pope of Rome is no longer the Antichrist for the evangelicals of the United States. In a recent survey of them, John Paul II won first place for popularity, with 59 percent saying they view him favorably, ahead of Pat Robertson, with 54, and Jerry Falwell, with 44 percent.

And the pope returns the affection, with an eye for the November presidential election. In the June 4 edition of "Corriere della Sera," Luigi Accattoli, the Vatican journalist who most faithfully reports the views from the pontifical palazzo, wrote that the pope has already decided: he prefers the evangelical Bush to the Catholic Kerry. And "he wants to help him with the Catholic voters."

One additional factor to keep in mind here is that Father Neuhaus and other theocons, like Michael Novak, have made similar efforts to reconcile Christians to Judaism. They've created an interesting situation whereconservative Jews (and Zionists) are forced to recognize that they ultimately have more in common and greater shared interests with many Christians than with liberal and secular Jews--a dynamic on display most prominently in the cordial relations between the Sharon government and evangelicals. As conservative religious groups reach out further to blacks, Hispanics, and Asians of faith also we may see the first truly integrated political movement that is held together by common ideas--as opposed to the Democratic Party, for instance, which is merely an assemblage of different groups with specialized interests.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 20, 2004 10:10 AM