God and Nation

I was watching C-Span last night as they re- aired a segment on the William Pryor hearings. As you know, many people are up in arms because people seemed worried about Mr. Pryor's deeply held beliefs. (You can read more about that at NRO via Matt Yglesias. You can also read about it on MSNBC and other places.)

Last night Orrin Hatch seemed worried/angry that people would ask questions about someone's faith during a judicial hearing (or any hearing, he seemed to imply). He told a story about the religious persecution people of his faith suffered in the US (Latter Day Saints, I believe).

Contrast this 'hands off religion' stance against:

The Pope's war on 'Gay Marriage', where he has told any catholic politician, basically, that supporting gay marriage (or any equivalent) is a sin. (We'll leave out the implied 'go to hell' part).

How about the Governor of Alabama telling his constituency, that it's their Christian duty to approve a tax hike.

And, of course, GWB mangling of the biblical phrase to let us all know that he's a sinner too.

If political people were willing/able to leave their personal faith behind when doing the people's (IE Not, God's) work, then I would agree. Too often, in this country and others, people with strongly held religious beliefs use those beliefs to shape their politics.

And we need to be interested in that.