Letters to the Editor
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South Carolina uses churches as polling places
Glenn, I think the more interesting question about churches is the use of them as polling places--they're used quite frequently in South Carolina as polling places.
Regarding the message that Huckabee or Obama is a Christian--that seems to be clearly within the realm of the First Ammendment right of freedom of speech. I did not notice criticism of Huckabee just for the use of saying he was a Christian, but load of concern over his Dominionist/Theocratic policies.
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Hillary and faith . . .
In all fairness, check out HT Moore on the following link:
http://www.thehillaryiknow.com/
If we are going to assess this issue, we should investigate the rhetoric that comes out of all of the campaigns.
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Obama: PLEASE criticise my Christian faith!
I haven't read all the letters yet so forgive me if mine is not original.
Has it occurred to anyone that this brochure might be DESIGNED to start a "debate" in the media over whether it's any more appropriate for Obama to exploit his Christian faith than it is for Huckabee? I am sure the campaign would love this "debate" because it would extinguish the rumors that he's a closet Muslim who wants to be sworn in on the qur'an right before he negotiates a truce with Osama bin Laden, his old pal from his madrassa days.
I think it's a brilliant strategy.
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The point is...
Glenn, I think your point is well taken, but the real lesson from it should not be that what Obama is doing is wrong, but that what Huckabee did was fine. Why criticize Huckabee for standing on his Christian roots. What else has he got to stand on? Politicians are free to make any argument they want to about why they should be elected. Despite how the media portray us, we voters are not mindless zombies. We can evaluate the candidates claims and vote accordingly. If you want to criticize Huckabee, there's plenty to criticize in the issues he pursues.
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"If I understand him correctly..."
If I understand him correctly, he states that Americans have a need for values, and we can't just ignore that...
LBS
Right you are LBS, and those values are in the Consitution and the Bill of Rights. As a Jew you really ought to know that. Or are you not aware that when all those religious values are written into the consitution we will be the only ones who are obligated to deny the devine Saving Power of Jesus Christ. Oh BTW, we can't submit to his Lordship neither.
Or were you hoping for both a Jewish and Christian Established Church?
The ultimate value in Christianity is bringing sinners to Christ. Do you want the resources of the government behind that effort, with the ability, the inevitability of sanction and discrimination of those who will not avail themselves of Christ's intercession with God so our sins can be forgiven.
That's you and me, baby. We are guilty of the worst possible religious transgression- the outright rejection of the Word of God.
Do you want your kids preached to by Christian missionaries at school?
And there's a nasty Yiddish name for guys like Rabbi Lerner, but this is a family blog.
I would advise Rabbi lerner to lean a little less on the favor of the Goyim and more on the Bill of Rights. He'll get a lot further.
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Entire candidacy, not just one message, and a matter of degree
how can one be criticized while the other be defended for employing what seems to be the same tactic?
I don't think Huckabee's ads were criticized for being overtly Christian. They were criticized because they were symbolic of his policy. (Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, etc.) So I don't think it was really the ads that were being criticized, but Huckabee's platform.
There's nothing wrong with an ad saying either one is a "Christian Leader." If you feel it's inappropriate, don't vote for him.
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You Answered Your Own Question
Regardless of the numerous, significant differences between them, how can one be criticized while the other be defended for employing what seems to be the same tactic?
Because one of them has been the victim of a smear campaign falsely claiming that he is a Muslim? Unless your position is no one should ever mention their religion in a campaign at all, I don't see the equivalence here. Obama is responding to false attacks regarding his religious affiliation -- it is a defensive move. Huckabee is simply saying, "Vote for me because I am a Christian like you." Context actually does matter.
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At this point I'm not getting creeped out by Obama's religion
Huckabee seems like a pleasant enough fellow, but his world view is skewed in dangerous ways. These words, for certain Christian traditions, aren't just a way of expressing a generic idea. These words are code that relates to their eschatology. Whether Huckabee views the problem of violence in the Middle East in the context of a belief that such violence might some day signal the end times (and this is a good thing), I think, is unknown(?)
We may think of a war in the Middle East as something horrible, potentially cataclysmic, something to be avoided at almost any cost, but there are Christian communities that view such a conflagration as the beginning of something better, something beautiful, something that was prophesied long ago. Some communities would like to see this happen sooner rather than later. The Rapture is the signal event. Maranatha! The Lord is Coming!
Actually, there's really not a whole lot of difference between the eschatalogy of the Hidden Imam of the Twelver Shia and many Christian churches that expect the eschaton to appear shortly. This is not necessarily good theology, but it does seem to motivate people to act in certain ways that sometimes lead to violence (there may recently have been a case of this in Iraq - at least as I understood the reports).
And don't even get me started on the Dominionists.
I'm a Clinton supporter, and I don't have a problem with this. I'm not a Christian, and I don't have a problem with this. I think the aims are completely different. I think it's fair to mention this, analyze it, and then leave it, which I feel pretty sure Obama will do.
Let's be real, Obama has to deal with an American public that isn't all that open to people who have "Hussein" as a middle name. If you put this in the context of SC, you're probably looking at the one state in the union where this is absolutely essential (I mean we're talking SC!)
Apologies to anyone who may have been offended by anything I wrote (including correspondents from SC).