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The
Boston
Globe
Columnist
The faith gap in flux
By Ellen Goodman,
boston.com from the Web, October 28, 2007
IN RETROSPECT, it was probably not
the best way to reassure the faithful. When James Dobson, child
psychologist turned political kingmaker, rose to speak at the Values Voter
Summit dinner, he first complained about media reports that the religious right
was dead. Then he cheerily announced, "Welcome to the morgue."
Yes, well, not yet. The much-reported news from last weekend's gathering
was that the honchos of the religious right are still wanted -- dead or alive --
by the Republican candidates.
The candidates came, they saw, they pandered, though they didn't exactly
conquer. Mitt Romney flashed his family credentials so brightly you could
hardly see his flip-flop footwear. Fred Thompson promised his first hour
in the Oval Office would be spent praying. Mike Huckabee claimed, "You are
my roots." And even Rudy Giuliani offered the lame reassurance that "you
have absolutely nothing to fear from me."
If the summit-goers did not meet in a morgue, they left in mourning for a
candidate to call their own. But you don't have to be a political
pathologist to see the real message from the meeting. There are signs of
ideological rigor mortis among the old guard.
Think back to 2004, the "Year of the Values Voter." The religious right
claimed credit for President Bush's reelection and grabbed the word "values" the
way they had grabbed the word "life."
Headlines pronounced, "Faith, Values Fuel Win" and "Moral Values Drove Bush
Victory." It was the morals, stupid. It was the culture wars, dummy.
This notion was driven by exit polls that let voters pick Iraq, the economy or
moral values as their number one issue.
Anyone who considered war to be a moral issue was ignored. Anyone who
wasn't a member of the antiabortion, antigay, fundamentalist right was,
literally, devalued.
Two years later, despair over the war and dismay about scandals had widened the
morals agenda. And Democrats had narrowed the so-called God gap.
But at the Family Research Council gathering, Dobson's famous child-raising
book, "Dare to Discipline," must have been required reading. This was a
gathering of emeriti from Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly to virtue gambler Bill
Bennett to spurned justice Bob Bork. They were grooving to the oldies,
from abortion to gay marriage.
From the sound of the panels -- "The Impact of the Homosexual Agenda" -- and the
look of the T-shirts -- "Pet Your Dog, Not Your Date" -- you would think that
nothing was changing among social conservatives. But many conservatives
are taking steps across old borders.
Step One: The environment. Never mind that Dobson once described
global warming worries as a vast distraction from the great moral issues.
For the past several years, evangelicals have sounded more like
environmentalists.
Last summer, five prominent religious leaders, including Richard Cizik of the
National Association of Evangelicals, and five scientists, including James
McCarthy of Harvard, toured Alaska together. As Cizik said, "We dare to
imagine a world in which science and religion cooperate -- minimizing our
differences about how creation got started, to work together to reverse its
degradation."
Step Two: Family. The "values voters" applauded the presidential
veto against extending children's healthcare. A pamphlet explaining where
the candidates stand on "Issues that Matter Most to Your Family" listed two
issues: abortion and gay marriage.
But on family matters, there are some unusual connections between former
untouchables such as Roberta Combs, head of the Christian Coalition, and Joan
Blades of both MoveOn.org and MomsRising. "At the end of the day, it's all
about family," says Combs, who favors paid family medical leave, an idea that
was once anathema to conservatives.
Step Three: Liberty. At the summit, OB-GYN and congressman Ron Paul
put forth his most strident antiabortion views. But on questions about
overreaching government from torture to surveillance, this maverick reads like a
chapter from progressive Naomi Wolf's dire book, "The End of America." The
right's American Freedom Agenda and the left's American Freedom Campaign sound
as similar as their names in alarm over assaults on the Constitution.
I'm not suggesting that social conservatives and liberals are going to be
singing in the same choir or chorus. The left got a three-year head start
on the search for common ground. Now some on the right are moving onto
this terrain.
This leaves the "values voters" leadership boogieing like they did in 2004,
stuck on their elevated summit far above the madding crowd ... of voters.
The only thing that seemed to rouse their pre-Halloween spirits was the specter
of that wicked witch, Hillary Clinton. The big laugh line of the weekend?
"We put our 'Run, Hillary, Run' bumper stickers on the front of our cars."
Come to think of it, this is starting to look like a cold case.
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