http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/21/my_new_religion/
Boston Globe,
December 21, 2007....
A Presidential Year Confession-and Prayer
By Steve Early
While millions of other Americans have somehow managed
to minimize the impact of the 2008 presidential
election campaign on their collective consciousness,
the candidates from both parties have had a
transformative effect on me. They've made me a
'militant atheist.'
It's not a label that would have fit comfortably in the
past. In fact, I've long been in the closet with all
those other secular humanists who never cared enough
about organized religion, one way or another, to
complain about it in public-much less join an atheist
group.
But now I stand accused, by a prominent
neighbor in Belmont, Massachusetts, of wanting to
establish 'a new religion in America-the religion of
secularism.' In his major speech earlier this month on
my least favorite presidential debate topic, Mitt
Romney declares that I'm 'wrong'-despite my never
having gotten into an argument with anyone, ever, about
which religion is right or wrong or whether they all
should be avoided.
In my previous job as a labor organizer, the whole
subject was taboo, due its potential divisiveness in
groups striving for workplace and class solidarity.
Unless you're guilt tripping a Catholic institution
into living up to the standards of past papal
pronouncements about the dignity of labor or trying to
get some local minister or rabbi to bestow their
blessing on the fast disappearing practice of
collective bargaining, what's God got to do with having
a union anyway? Being a socialist-as well as a trade
unionist-- seemed like baggage enough for me in
America. Why call attention to the fact that you're
also part of that tiny fraction of the population that
doesn't believe in angels and auras, holy ghosts or
trinities, great spirits, supreme beings, or deities of
any kind?
Unlike some angry ex-Catholics in Massachusetts (and
elsewhere), I never had a personal axe to grind-or
civil suit to pursue-based on my own youthful (and thus
involuntary) immersion in the Church. It's true that I
once got slapped by a priest-a monsignor, no less--and
in the sacristy of all places. But that act of clerical
hubris was, in his mind (if not mine), well-deserved
punishment for a routine altar boy error. There was no
fondling involved and, thus, no lasting damage to my
psyche; the price I paid, as a child, for regular
attendance at Sunday Mass, whether beside the altar or
slouched in a pew, was sheer boredom. After being
subjected to a truly unedifying stream of
sermons-offering scant relief from the incomprehensible
Latin of the rest of the service--I was finally able to
escape religion (or so I thought) when I left home for
college at age eighteen.
Now, four decades later, my subsequent, scrupulously
maintained detachment from all matters spiritual is
under siege. The other side- as the brave Moslem
apostate Ayann Hirsi Ali points out-just won't leave us
alone, here or abroad. In the U.S., while still far
from being a theocratic state, the 'live and let live'
tolerance of an earlier era has given way to in-your-
face proselytizing-or, in Romney's case, demonizing. On
the presidential campaign trail, ritual professions of
Judeo-Christian faith have become a pre-condition for
admission to the first, second, or any tier of
candidates, in either party. Among the Democrats, you
must have a favorite Bible passage or parable ready to
cite. In the GOP camp, you better believe every word of
the book as well.
On candidate resumes, church attendance is no longer
enough. Now, would-be occupants of the White House
flaunt their roles as 'Christian leaders'--although ex-
minister Mike Huckabee's application of that label to
himself, in Iowa TV ads, seems designed to call
attention to doctrinal differences with Romney. This
must be hard for our former governor to take. After
all, he's an ex-bishop in the Mormon 'stake' that
erected a huge mausoleum-like temple, with a
controversial steeple, that towers over everything
around it just a few blocks from my house (yet he
implies that I'm plotting to impose my non-religious
views on him?).
Meanwhile, religiosity plays a big role in Hillary
Clinton's latest makeover, just as United Church of
Christ membership is Barack Obama's first line of
defense against rumors that he may be a follower of the
Prophet Mohammed! (Obama also keeps his original pastor
in Chicago at a safe distance, to avoid being linked to
that black preacher's social gospel militancy). As
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans for the
Separation of Church and State, told The Boston Globe
Dec. 19: 'I've never seen such a religion-drenched
primary on both the Democratic and Republican sides.'
The only sane word-from anyone running--about why, as
John F. Kennedy argued, separation of church and state
should render all of this discourse irrelevant for the
duration, has come from libertarian Ron Paul. On Dec.
18, he was asked by Fox News Channel what he thought of
Huckabee's latest TV buy in Iowa, New Hampshire and
South Carolina. In this new ad, the former Arkansas
governor wishes voters a 'Merry Christmas' and declares
that 'what really matters' at this time of year--in
addition to turning out for him next month--is 'the
celebration of the birth of Christ.' Paul criticized
Huckabee for 'using a cross like he is the only
Christian, or implying that subtly.' Then, in a display
of truth-telling rare among Democrats, the Texas
Congressman cited Sinclair Lewis' famous prediction
that, 'when fascism comes to this country, it will be
wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.'
It's all enough to make even a non-believer pray-for a
moment of respite, a day of deliverance, or, better
yet, a year of abstinence from any further public
declarations by the candidates on the unfathomable
mysteries of their faith.
(Steve Early is a longtime labor activist and free-
lance journalist who lives--but not does not worship--
in Arlington, Mass.)
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