ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, July 26, 2007

Newfound religious tolerance only goes so far
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

The Democratic Party is getting religion. So say America's leading news
outlets, which have been running story after breathless story in recent weeks
about Democratic efforts to woo religious voters with "God talk" and outreach
to faith communities.

Democratic attempts to attract churchgoing voters who lean Republican have
elicited unusual excitement from media commentators. Journalists who sneered at
George W. Bush's invocation of Jesus as his favorite philosopher and derided
Republican religious outreach as shameless pandering are swooning at the sight
of Barack Obama preaching from a pulpit and John Edwards confessing his "deep
and abiding love for [his] Savior, Jesus Christ."

The prospect of religious voters helping Democrats win the White House has made
some secular liberals rethink their opposition to religion in public life.
Pundits and activists who spent decades lamenting the pernicious influence of
religion on politics can be found praising that same influence now that its
power may be harnessed by politicians who support their causes.

Yet the new religious tolerance goes only so far. Religious believers who
cannot be converted from their conservative ways still find themselves
denounced as theocrats when they defend traditional morality or take
politically incorrect stands in the public square, even when they do not rely
on sectarian appeals to do so. The mere suspicion of religious motivation often
is enough to spark outrage among the same activists and pundits who profess
newfound respect for religion.

We saw this dynamic at work last month, when President Bush vetoed a bill
expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. In explaining his
veto, Bush criticized the bill for forcing taxpayers to fund the unethical
destruction of innocent human life. He cited the proven track record of other
forms of stem cell research that do not harm human embryos, and he backed
federal funding for research into other methods of producing pluripotent stem
cell lines that could yield the benefits of embryonic research without the
ethical pitfalls. Except for his speech's "God bless America" signoff, Bush
never mentioned God, religion or faith.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by contrast, steeped her rhetoric in
emotional and religious appeals. After citing support from religious leaders
and lauding embryo-destroying stem cell research as "biblical in its power to
cure," Pelosi blasted Bush for his "cruel veto" that "says 'no' to the hopes of
millions of families across America." Her response did not address the
scientific arguments and ethical concerns Bush had raised — rational concerns
he shares with millions of Americans — yet most pundits excoriated Bush, not
Pelosi, for dragging religious beliefs and irrational arguments into the
debate.

The incident was a reminder that the secular left's mantra about religiously
derived principles and arguments having no place in political debates has been
amended but not scrapped. It seems that you can invoke God, but only to support
politically correct causes.

So the same Catholic bishops that are feted as prophets for defending illegal
immigrants are derided as neanderthals for opposing euthanasia. Evangelicals
lauded for battling environmental pollution are ridiculed for fighting
pornography. Observant believers of all faiths are praised when their beliefs
inspire them to serve the poor but denounced when those same beliefs inspire
them to defend the unborn or traditional marriage. Even those who support such
causes without religious arguments or inspiration from religious tenets find
themselves dismissed as religious fundamentalists.

Democratic politicians and strategists are wise to take religious voters more
seriously. But their rhetoric will remain hollow so long as party leaders and
activists extend serious consideration and genuine tolerance only to a select
group of religious believers: those whose views on hot-button issues parrot the
party line.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.