Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock; C. Aquilina

The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof has an excellent column Sunday on the reprehensible religious bigotry attached to the continued smearing of Barack Obama. Kristof's main point is that religious bigotry has become a growing and all too accepted framework for smearing political candidates. He might have added that the main-stream media have been complicit in helping to enforce a narrow religious litmus test on both parties.

The whispering campaigns allege that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim planning to impose Islamic law on the country. Incredibly, he is even accused — in earnest! — of being the Antichrist.

Proponents of this theory offer detailed theological explanations for why he is the Antichrist, and the proof is that he claims to be Christian — after all, the Antichrist would say that, wouldn’t he? The rumors circulate enough that Glenn Beck of CNN asked the Rev. John Hagee, a conservative evangelical, what the odds are that Mr. Obama is the Antichrist.

These charges are fanatical, America’s own equivalent of the vicious accusations about Jews that circulate in some Muslim countries. They are less a swipe at one candidate than a calumny against an entire religion. They underscore that for many bigoted Americans in the 21st century, calling someone a Muslim is still a slur.

Kristof's column is worth reading through both for these insights and his history of how religious intolerance and sectarian bigotry have been used throughout our history to corrupt the public's view about which religious views are politically acceptable.

You would think America would be beyond this history, but with George Bush's open pandering to the religious right, and his thinly veiled bribing of Republican-leaning religious groups through the White House' "faith-based initiatives" we seem to have slipped backwards. Unfortunately, key media elements have been willing accomplices in an effort to impose a relatively narrow religious test on our politics.

We're all familiar with the Republican candidates pandering to the religious right. Even before Mike Huckabee confirmed that there was a substantial conservative/fundamentalist Christian bloc waiting to be tapped, Giuliani couldn't wait to tell us how thrilled he was to receive the endorsement of right winger Pat Robertson. And Mitt Romney was so concerned about Huckabee's appeal to the evangelical Christians and their apprehension about Mormons that he gave a speech expressly designed to assure them he was one of them. In America, it's not enough just to be religious, or even just "Christian." You have to adhere to particular kinds of Christianity that share, as Peterr noted of Romney's words, "a common creed" of Christian faith.

More recently, we've watched the embarrassing spectacle of the supposedly independent John McCain humiliating himself by not only accepting but actively soliciting the endorsement of John Hagee, a religious bigot well known for his hate-filled screeds against Catholics and only slightly less known for his [updated from comments] cynical support for Israel and a form of Zionism. Even after publicity of Hagee's extemist view forced McCain to reject [some of] the speech but not the speaker, McCain also sought the approval of another far-right extremist, and a further right-wing group (h/t Wordsmith), some of whose founders and members where hardly less extremist and exclusionary in their religious views.

The fact that the media has generally failed to criticize McCain for this right wing religious pandering, or to criticize the religious bigotry that creates the pressure to pander, is bad enough. The media itself has aggravated the matter. Tim Russert's badgering of Barack Obama during the last debate was designed to bully a candidate into renouncing an outspoken Muslim and to force a reaffirmation of accepted Christian beliefs.

CNN was equally to blame when it televised the Sojourner's Religious forum whose barely disguised purpose was to force each of the major candidates to declare their Christian allegiance. And regrettably, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton allowed themselves to be bullied into declaring their religious affiliations and beliefs on national television.

Returning to the religious slurs on Obama, from Kristof:

This is a case where Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain should take the initiative and denounce the fear-mongering about Mr. Obama as hate speech. The wink-wink references to “Barack Hussein Obama” and lies about his going to a madrassa are the religious equivalent of racial slurs, and Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton should denounce them in the strongest terms. This is their chance to show leadership.

And it's getting worse. See C&L's post and video on CNN's reactions to Rep. King's outrageous smear of Obama.