Man bites dog- and I agree with Michael Kinsley
I've been saying it for years. Mike Huckabee memorably- and pointedly- said it to Rudy Giuliani in a recent debate among GOP presidential candidates. But I was both astounded and even gratified to see this insight repeated in the Sept. 17 edition of TIME by no less a liberal than Michael Kinsley:
They are certainly lying to themselves.
Kinsley even gives signs of a nascent realization that, despite the naive attempts of liberals and secularists to suggest that religion in a pluralistic democracy has no place in the public square (a view which would, by its very nature, make that democracy something less than pluralistic where matters of ultimate belief are concerned), each of us has at our core values which define who we are, how we are likely to behave, and how we are likely to react not only to the words and actions of others but to the demands of circumstances, including those posed by public office. One need not agree with the details of a candidate's belief system; heaven knows I have yet to find a candidate for President in this or any year whose religious beliefs even more or less reflect my own. A candidate may not even use the language of religion to express those beliefs; in fact, to the degree to which the language of religion is anything other than a means by which to describe beliefs defensible on logical grounds accessible to all of us regardless of religion, it's likely to be at best ineffectual, and at worst, counterproductive. The rhetoric of the secularists to the contrary, there will never be a danger of theocracy in any democratic society as religiously diverse as ours.
But we have a right to know what lies in the innermost chamber of a potential President's heart. We even have a duty, to the degree to which we can ascertain it, to consider what, when all is said and done, drives any man or woman who asks us for the degree of trust that a candidate for President asks us for.
And if a person believes that abortion is murder, but that it should be OK to commit
murder, that in itself seems to me to come pretty close to exposing that person as morally unworthy of that trust.
...(T)he Roman Catholic Church holds that abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. Catholic liberal politicians since Mario Cuomo have said they personally accept the doctrine of their church but nevertheless believe in a woman's right to choose. This is silly. There is no right to choose murder. Either these politicians are lying to their church, or they are lying to us.
They are certainly lying to themselves.
Kinsley even gives signs of a nascent realization that, despite the naive attempts of liberals and secularists to suggest that religion in a pluralistic democracy has no place in the public square (a view which would, by its very nature, make that democracy something less than pluralistic where matters of ultimate belief are concerned), each of us has at our core values which define who we are, how we are likely to behave, and how we are likely to react not only to the words and actions of others but to the demands of circumstances, including those posed by public office. One need not agree with the details of a candidate's belief system; heaven knows I have yet to find a candidate for President in this or any year whose religious beliefs even more or less reflect my own. A candidate may not even use the language of religion to express those beliefs; in fact, to the degree to which the language of religion is anything other than a means by which to describe beliefs defensible on logical grounds accessible to all of us regardless of religion, it's likely to be at best ineffectual, and at worst, counterproductive. The rhetoric of the secularists to the contrary, there will never be a danger of theocracy in any democratic society as religiously diverse as ours.
But we have a right to know what lies in the innermost chamber of a potential President's heart. We even have a duty, to the degree to which we can ascertain it, to consider what, when all is said and done, drives any man or woman who asks us for the degree of trust that a candidate for President asks us for.
And if a person believes that abortion is murder, but that it should be OK to commit
murder, that in itself seems to me to come pretty close to exposing that person as morally unworthy of that trust.
Comments
Common-sense MUST be restored to the American psyche, you know?
Kucinich and Huckabee have the hearts in this race...each for his own side.
Kucinich is crazy, though...dead-wrong on most every issue.
Huckabee, on the other hand...well...he's got my support!
Thanks for the levity!