Religion and Political Discourse
By
STAR PARKER
Founder & PRESIDENT
COALITION ON URBAN RENEWAL & EDUCATION
A campaign news items
du jour is Mike Huckabee's apology to Mitt Romney for his alleged
slur about the Mormon religion.
This, of course, is
about Huckabee's now-famous question, posed to a New York Times
journalist: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are
brothers?"
But this apology says
more about the graciousness of Huckabee than any alleged
transgression.
This was red meat for
the Huckabee hunters, anxious to find some way to burst the former
Arkansas governor's growing bubble of popularity in Iowa and around
the country.
Even my friend,
conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, jumped in, calling this
part of a campaign to "vote against the Mormon."
But can't folks read?
Zev Chafets, who
interviewed the Republican for this New York Times Magazine feature,
asked him if he considers "Mormonism a cult or a religion."
Huckabee's response:
"I think it's a religion ... I don't really know much about it."
He then continued
with the now-famous question, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and
the devil are brothers?"
Apparently, in our
politically charged and politically correct culture, honesty itself
is now out of bounds. Huckabee responded honestly to a journalist,
asking about what some associate with the very arcane theology of
the Mormon religion.
Frankly, if I were
sitting there and asked the same question, my response would have
been, "Didn't Mormons believe, until a supposed change of view in
1978, that blacks are inferior, cursed by God and ineligible for the
Mormon priesthood?"
As far as everything
I can find on the subject, it's true. Am I joining the "vote against
the Mormon" campaign by noting this and saying it bothers me?
How about a recent
front-page story in The Washington Post discussing "rumors" that
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., might be a closet Muslim? Now this is
sleaze, associated by some with the campaign slime machine of Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
But suppose, indeed,
Obama were a Muslim. Would we be bigots to discuss this? Of course,
the discussion would take place.
Why, then, is it
illegitimate to have some kind of airing about a religion that is
less than 200 years old, understood by few outsiders and, certainly
for blacks, gives potential reasons for concern? Trying to
understand is not bigotry.
But politically
motivated suppression of reasonable discussion is not exactly my
idea of the American idea of free and open discourse.
Clearly, the Mormon
religion is an issue, and not one invented by Huckabee or any other
candidate.
In a Pew Research
Public Opinion poll released last week, 25 percent responded that
they are less likely to vote for a Mormon, 51 percent said they know
"not very much" or nothing about the Mormon religion and only 52
percent agreed that Mormons are Christians.
Let's get real here.
Romney, the
Republican former governor of Massachusetts, is spending a ton of
money in Iowa and around the country. Despite outspending everyone,
he's gotten nowhere in the national polls. He's behind Huckabee in
Iowa, although he's outspent him 10 to one.
This is not driven by
any "don't vote for the Mormon" campaign. It's being driven by
Romney's failure to sell himself to Republican voters.
As I have written
previously, it's a question of credibility rather than Mormonism.
Flip-flops on
important social issues aside, David Kusnet defines the problem well
in this week's New Republic. He calls it "managerialism," rather
than Mormonism.
This came through
loud and clear in Romney's recent appearance on Fox News' "Hannity &
Colmes" program.
Responding to co-host
Alan Colmes' question about who he expected to be the Democratic
nominee, Romney began his response by saying, "...I'm not sure who
the Democratic nominee will be. But in this regard, they're pretty
much all the same ..."
I leaned forward in
anticipation of hearing that they're all liberals.
But, no. ".... you
have in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and John Edwards three
people who really haven't run anything, who don't have executive
experience, who don't really understand how the economy works."
I guess if they had
been CEOs or governors, then it would be OK that they all want to
tax, spend and regulate us into oblivion and that each one condemned
the Supreme Court's decision banning partial-birth abortions.
The best way for
Romney to get Mormonism out of the discussion, to the extent it is
in it, is to capture hearts and minds with values and views that
resonate with voters.
Meanwhile, regarding
the discussion of Mormonism, or any other religion, let's recall
that the same First Amendment that prohibits government
establishment of religion also guarantees free speech.
---------------------------------
Star Parker is president of the
Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education and author of the new book
White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.
Prior to her involvement in social
activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles,
California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college,
received a BS degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian
magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet
served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based
alternatives to empower the lives of the poor.
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