September 13, 2007

How are we to think about the religious commitments of political candidates? Are their actual beliefs off-limits in terms of public policy?

That is the conventional wisdom among many in the media and the political class. As these opinion-shapers see it, religion is a privatized affair with no obvious policy impact. In other words, we should not expect that a politician's religious commitments will actually mean anything when it comes to their policies and their conduct in office.

The presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy raised all of these issues in 1960 and, according to the prevailing political wisdom, we are to see his approach in the campaign as the appropriate model. Kennedy knew that his Catholicism was an issue and the 'Catholic question' was a constant distraction for the campaign. In order to neutralize the issue, Kennedy gave an address to a group of Baptist pastors in Houston and pledged that his Catholicism would not drive his presidential decision-making. Kennedy's narrow win seemed to validate his approach in many eyes.

Similarly, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo presented a major speech at the University of Notre Dame in 1984, making essentially the same argument with regard to the issue of abortion. Cuomo, a Roman Catholic, claimed to be personally opposed to abortion but politically obligated to support a woman's "choice" to abort her unborn child -- something his church teaches is nothing less than murder.

That approach is an insult to both religious conviction and intellectual honesty. One cannot honestly believe that abortion is murder and that an option for murder should be legally protected.

Michael Kinsley obviously agrees. In his commentary published in this week's edition of TIME magazine, Kinsley argues that candidates owe voters a more honest and coherent account of their faith than has yet been forthcoming. Kinsley is a well-known commentator, journalist, and political pundit. His article seems to be prompted by the candidacy of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, but his point applies to all candidates.

In Kinsley's words:

Mitt Romney wants the J.F.K. deal with voters: If you don't hold my religion against me, I won't impose my religion on you. But that deal made little sense in 1960 and makes no sense today. Kennedy said, "I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair." But the Roman Catholic Church holds that abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. Catholic liberal politicians since Mario Cuomo have said they personally accept the doctrine of their church but nevertheless believe in a woman's right to choose. This is silly. There is no right to choose murder. Either these politicians are lying to their church, or they are lying to us.

As Kinsley argues, presidential candidates commonly speak of the importance of their faith and beliefs. In his words, they "are required to wear religion on their sleeves." As Kinsley explains: