The Change Mariner

US Religious Battles and Politics

CS Monitor

... Many conservatives, however, strongly object to the president's position on Boykin. In an article entitled, "Conservative leaders defend Gen. Boykin for speaking truth," crosswalk.com quotes former Reagan aide and prominent neoconservative Frank Gaffney, who says Boykin clearly put his finger on the truth when he said "his God is bigger than the god of Islam." The Bush administration, Mr. Gaffney says, should not reprimand Boykin for "telling the truth."

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley writes in Time magazine that it's OK to think your God is the biggest (afterall, he says, isn't that what religion is all about), and that Boykin was just saying what he believes in. But the biggest problem for President Bush, says Mr. Kinsley, is that Boykin's comments undermine one of the greatest accomplishments of the Bush administration: "... a greater appreciation that Muslims and their religion add to the richness of our great ethnic stew. And without Bush's special emphasis, the opposite might easily have happened."

In the conservative Weekly Standard, David Gelernter writes that, "of course" America is a Christian nation.

But, some people argue, that was long ago. Demographics and beliefs have changed. We have changed our minds about religion. Says who? Since when? Of course this is no longer the almost exclusively Christian nation it was in 1776. But does anyone doubt that it remains an overwhelmingly Christian nation nonetheless? We are solemnly warned that, nowadays, public expressions of Christianity are "controversial." Among whom? Look up "controversial" and you will find that "upsetting to the Los Angeles Times" is not the definition.
Overlooked in the controversy about the religious remarks made by Boykin, writes E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post, is that fact that "the general was no doubt expressing the views of tens of millions of Americans."
For the administration, it's not just that Boykin presents a political problem, because the most loyal part of Bush's base is made up of evangelical Christians, many of whom share Boykin's views. Even more important, it is highly likely that Bush himself, a genuinely devout Christian by all accounts, agrees with at least some, perhaps much, of what Boykin said. In particular, it's pretty certain that Bush believes that Satan is in some way implicated in the troubles the United States now faces. That is not an eccentric view among Christians. It is rather orthodox.
For atheists, agnostics, and liberal Christians, Jews and Muslims, Dionne continues, toleration is "an easy reach." Yet as Boykin's statements show, the very idea of religious liberty is theologically difficult for many people, regardless of the faith they follow.

Posted by Norm M. Wada at October 30, 2003 09:43 AM | TrackBack
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