In the U.S., neither party owns faith

[rug]

Exploiting religion to manipulate the outcome of elections takes us backward.

By Rick Cole
September 6, 2012

I'm a Catholic and a Democrat, mostly in that order.

When Jack Kennedy ran for president, the two overlapped as much as "Mormon and Republican" seem to today. Now, however, even though Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) are Catholic Democrats (and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is a Mormon Democrat), it's increasingly uncomfortable to be both. Angry voices in my church and in my party are squaring off against each other in an increasingly noisy and ugly confrontation.

I tend to take the long view. That comes in handy in a church that's been around more than 2,000 years and a party that's been around nearly 200 years. The history of my church has its share of dark moments, from immoral popes to inquisitions. And for decades my party was on the wrong side of battles for racial equality, and not just in the South.

Right now, unfortunately, those who forget history on both the right and the left are using raw political muscle to demonize dissent, with the mirror-image goals of driving Democrats out of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholics out of the Democratic Party.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cole-catholic-democrat-20120906,0,6759409.story

[cbayer]

1. He makes a good case for tolerance and respect, and also delineates how religion

can be used by our opponents as a wedge issue.

I sometimes wonder about people who post only on this issue here and seem to be intent on driving the wedge deeper.

Are they really with us? I'm not so sure.

[cleanhippie]

2. Great question. You should ask your father how deep he wants it to go.

In case you don't know who cbayers father is, he posts here, and his posts are about as divisive as they come.