Democrats’ Focus On Faith Draws Stern Warnings - Unprecedented effort to close ‘God gap’ at convention seen by church-state observers as ‘dangerous.’

Alexandria, Va., Rabbi Jack Moline: Sounds note of caution on Democrats’ faith push.

By James D. Besser

August 21, 2008

http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a13242/News/National.html#

Democrats plan to use their convention in Denver next week to close the so-called “God gap” and shed their reputation as the secular party, but their efforts could thrust them into the church-state crossfire that has already engulfed the Republicans.

“It’s excessive,” said Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman when asked about a convention schedule that includes a big interfaith gathering as the convention’s official kickoff, a series of “faith caucus” meetings and a number of rabbis representing every stream of Judaism.

“Let’s not forget that this is an election in which we have seen candidates engage with each other over who embraces Jesus the most,” Foxman continued. “It’s no longer subtle.”

Foxman and others repeated a warning given fresh urgency in the run-up to the national conventions: that the faith focus of both parties is coming perilously close to establishing a religious test for those seeking higher office.

The Democrats are pulling out all the stops to show that they, too, know how to talk to religious voters — and, along the way refute the 12 percent of Americans who still believe Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee, is a secret Muslim.

Political scientists say the unprecedented show of Democratic religiosity is essential for a party that is steadily losing support from the nation’s most religious voters — a category not confined to Evangelicals.

But the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, a church-state watchdog group, called the religious focus of next week’s Democratic convention — which he said will be matched when the Republicans meet in Minneapolis a week later — “dangerous” because it is based on political expedience.

“You have to set this in context,” said Rev. Gaddy, who accepted an invitation by the Obama campaign to come to Denver and discuss his objections to the candidate’s surprising support for elements of the Bush administration faith-based initiative, another element in the Democrats’ faith push.

“This is a political campaign. The object of both parties is to win the presidency,” Rev. Gaddy added. “And anything that happens in Denver or Minneapolis happens because strategists believe it will be helpful in winning the White House, not because of a profound interest in religion.”

One of the architects of the Democratic shift acknowledged there are dangers in the process but said the party is handling the change “carefully and mindfully.”

Rabbi Jack Moline, leader of a Conservative synagogue in Alexandria, Va., has been part of the party’s Faith and Action initiative since its inception more than two years ago.

He said faith activists “feel a little heady” about the expanded outreach to the religious community but added “the note of caution I’m sounding is important.

“I don’t think that what the Democrats are doing will lead to a religious test for office,” Rabbi Moline said. “But it will definitely make it more difficult in our day and age for a person who professes no specific religious faith to make it in American politics, and I believe that is a bad thing. So we have to be diligent in defending those whose faith is no faith as we move forward.”

Rabbi Moline said the heightened focus on religion “is the result of recognition by Democratic leaders that the party has neglected speaking purposefully to the faith community. They understand they have to change that, but they want to get it right. They don’t want address just one segment of the faith community, the way some other groups do.”

Press releases announcing faith-based events at next week’s convention in Denver have come in great torrents.

Kicking off convention week activities in Denver will be an interfaith gathering featuring clerics and lay leaders from an array of Christian, Jewish and Muslim denominations. Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive director of the Orthodox Union, will be one of four keynoters.

Two reform rabbis — Rabbi Amy Schwartzman, a prominent Washington area religious leader who made news in 2003 when she sharply challenged President George W. Bush on his economic polices during a meeting with Jewish leaders, and Rabbi Steve Foster of Temple Emanuel in Denver will also participate in that event.

Rabbi Marc Schneier, spiritual leader of The Hampton Synagogue and founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding will offer a benediction.

Schneier said the interfaith event will be a "celebration of the diversity of the United States -- not only along ethnic lines, but along faith lines. That's where the Obama camp is coming from. We need to reach beyond ourseives if we are to rise above ourselves."

Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, will participate in several faith caucus events during the convention.

Rabbi Saperstein will also give the invocation at Denver’s Invesco Field just before Obama accepts the party’s nomination and gives what will be the most critical speech of his career.

Rabbi Saperstein, who also teaches constitutional law, said religious outreach by political parties and politicians becomes dangerous “when it is used to divide people, when religion is used as a political weapon. But when it is used to inspire, to provide guidance, it plays an important prophetic role that has always been part of American political life.”

He admitted that can be a difficult distinction, citing last week’s appearance by both presidential candidates at a forum moderated by megachurch pastor Rick Warren. The church forum was on the “cusp” of appropriateness, he said; questions like “what does it mean to you to trust in Christ and what does it mean on a daily basis,” crossed important church-state lines.

Rev. Warren said in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline” that he could vote for a non-Christian candidate, including a Jew, but that he could not vote for an atheist.

The focus on outreach to diverse religious communities at both upcoming conventions is “mostly healthy,” Rabbi Saperstein said.

And political analysts say it’s healthy for a party that has been steadily losing ground with religious voters — and whose 2008 nominee is being portrayed by some detractors as something less than fully American and who continues to fight claims that he is really a Muslim.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, offered some stark statistics.

“In 2004, in what was a typical performance for a Democrat, [Sen. John] Kerry received a mere 38 percent of the vote among those who attend church regularly — at least weekly — and fully 42 percent of Americans attend church regularly,” he said. “Kerry swamped Bush — 67 percent to 31 percent — among those who have no religion, but they are only 10 percent of the population.”

That simple arithmetic is increasingly evident to party strategists.

“There is a constituency for church-state separation, but the fact is that being religious and being able to talk convincingly about religion is always a plus in American politics,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a California State University political scientist. “Let’s not forget that the last two Democrats who won the presidency, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, spoke about religion a lot.”

The Democrats are also exploiting an unexpected advantage, he said. For once the GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, is the one who seems “uncomfortable and awkward” in talking about religion, while “Obama is very comfortable with it. And he has to overcome these silly rumors about being a Muslim.”

“There’s no question the Democrats have had a real deficit with people of faith,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “Because Sen. Obama is a person of deep faith, and Christian faith in particular, there is a real significant opportunity here to close that gap. In many states that are critical from an electoral point of view, closing the God gap could be critical in November.”

Analysts question the popular notion that a substantial portion of the Evangelical vote is in play this year. But in a close election — and polls now suggest this year’s contest could be a photo finish — halting the erosion of support from mainstream Protestants and Catholics and picking up even a sliver of the Evangelical vote could prove critical, even decisive.

Still, Rev. Gaddy, the Interfaith Alliance president, said the strong religious focus of both national conventions is a dangerous distraction.

“With our nation at war on two fronts, with a failing economy, with our public education institutions in shambles, with health care not available to millions, we don’t need to be talking about who is the most religious person,” he said. “We need to be talking about who can best lead this nation in the direction of a better fulfillment of the Constitution and the American dream.”

A Democratic convention loaded down with religious programming, and a GOP meeting a week later likely to include even more, do not contribute to that goal, he said.