THE TRIUMPH OF KERRY'S POLITICAL THEOLOGY


For decades, Republicans,with the complicity of Democrats, have managed to frame the national "values" debate in this nation as one between religious conservatives and secular liberals. In doing so, they have also managed to define public religiosity almost entirely through the dictates of holiness; that above all else what G-d demands of believers is that they uphold traditional sexual morality. For justice-seeking people of faith, this state of affairs was doubly depressing. Not only were these appeals made in the name of religion politically effective, helping to promote socioeconomic agendas antithetical to social justice, they were also a hillul hashem (desecration of G-d's name), in advancing a theological notion of a Creator mostly indifferent to injustice so long as "faith" and "piety" were advanced.


In the past, select Democrats have fought the lonely two-front battle against the GOP's twisted political theology and their own party's religious privatism. Black Democrats, treated as a "special case" as they carried the embers of the fires of the faith-based Civil Rights movement; Clinton, who intermittedly effectively employed religious rhetoric but undermined it with his own behavior; and most directly Lieberman, who drew undue villification from the party elite's secularists. It was therefore a wholly unexpected and delightful surprise for John Kerry, to shed his religious privatism and finally bring progressive political theology out of the shadows of American political discourse. Last night Kerry took our "faith-based" president (who, to his credit has at least pursued justice abroad if not at home) and put forward a far brighter political theology.



Kerry exposed the poverty of the GOP's notion of "values" by taking them to task on the injustice of their socioeconomic priorities:

The president has denied 9.2 million women $3,800 a year. But he doesn't hesitate to fight for $136,000 to a millionaire. One percent of America got $89 billion last year in a tax cut. But people working hard, playing by the rules, trying to take care of their kids, family values that we're supposed to value so much in America - I'm tired of politicians who talk about family values and don't value families. What we need to do is raise the minimum wage.

Five hundred thousand kids lost after-school programs because of your budget. Now that's not in my gut. That's not my value system. And certainly not so that the wealthiest people in America can walk away with another tax cut - $89 billion last year to the top 1 percent of Americans, but kids lost their after-school programs. You be the judge.



And in a more profound way, Kerry addressed the poverty of the GOP's understanding of "faith" in explaining why true faith requires the pursuit of social justice:

There's a great passage of the Bible that says What does it mean my brother to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead. And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people. That's why I fight against poverty. That's why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That's why I fight for equality and justice. All of those things come out of that fundamental teaching and belief of faith. But I know this: that President Kennedy in his inaugural address told of us that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. And that's what we have to - I think that's the test of public service.

Finally, Kerry powerfully delivered a political theology that America needs, one that is intolerant of injustice, while tolerant of the pluralities of holiness - the different ways in which people of different faith traditions connect to G-d.

And as I measure the words of the Bible, and we all do, different people measure different things: the Koran, the Torah or, you know, Native Americans who gave me a blessing the other day had their own special sense of connectedness to a higher being. And people all find their ways to express it. I was taught - I went to a church school, and I was taught that the two greatest commandments are: love the Lord your God with all your mind, your body and your soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. And frankly, I think we have a lot more loving of our neighbor to do in this country and on this planet. We have a separate and unequal school system in the United States of America. There's one for the people who have and there's one for the people who don't have. And we're struggling with that today. The president and I have a difference of opinion about how we live out our sense of our faith. I talked about it earlier when I talked about the works and faith without works being dead. I think we've got a lot more work to do. And as president I will always respect everybody's right to practice religion as they choose or not to practice, because that's part of America.

I know that many religious conservatives Americans, already commited to Bush as "one of them" tuned Kerry out last night, and I know that many secularists and religious privatists find Kerry's public discussion of faith disturbing and a capitulation to the religious right, but if even a small minority who listened to Kerry were open-minded enough to take his words to heart, it will mean major progress for both religion and politics in America.