Commonweal Gets It Wrong

Democrats' challenge is not a lack of religion, but verbalizing just how religion motivates our governing philosophy and proving — with deeds rather than words — that we mean what we say.

I blanched as I read the editorial on Catholic swing voters in the August edition of Commonweal.  Like dozens of other articles, the editorial lays out chapter and verse of the challenge facing Democrats.

I have a different take on this than the Commonweal editors and others on the challenge facing Democrats.  The editors hang much of their analysis on a speech given by William Galston in which he said, among other things, that some Democrats opposed welfare reform in 1996 because it was "values-laden." (If it was so laden with values, why did the Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities raise serious concerns about it in 1996 and oppose a version of the extension of it in 2002?).

Commonweal and Galston and countless others argue that Democratic Party has a religion problem because part of the party, if not all the party, is hostile to religion, a position which serves as an echo chamber for the attacks from Republicans.

Democrats' challenge, however, is not a lack of religion, but verbalizing just how religion motivates our governing philosophy and proving — with deeds rather than words — that we mean what we say. As Senator Obama argued in his June speech, as long as Democrats are not defining themselves, others will do so, most often in the least attractive light.

Whatever your view of the challenge of religion facing Democrats, the month of September has been a very good one.

The good news started in the September edition of Commonweal, where it detailed the prospects of Bill Ritter, the Democratic nominee for Governor in Colorado.  Ritter's life story is a moving one – worked his way through high school, college and law school to help support his family and fund his studies.  Ritter also happens to be pro-life, not unlike the Democratic Leader of the U.S. Senate, incidentally.  So much for Democrats being a party that would not permit a diversity of views among its elected leaders.   

The good news continued on September 14, when a coalition of pro-life and pro-choice Democrats introduced a bill to reduce the number of abortions in the United States. The Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act increases funding for adoption and access to contraception in an effort to move the debate on abortion away from stasis to realistic solutions.  So much for Democrats espousing only abortion on demand, as Commonweal argued in August.

That same day Bob Casey, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, delivered the 38^th Annual Pope John XXIII lecture.  Citing the need to protect the dignity of each person, Casey challenged all policymakers to move beyond a discussion of faith in public life that deals with one issue — abortion — and addresses the range of injustice that undercuts the dignity of people.  Quoting his father, Casey said:

"Only government, when all else fails, can safeguard the vulnerable and powerless. When it reneges on that obligation, freedom becomes a hollow word. A hard-working person unable to find work and support his or her family is not free. A person for whom sickness means financial ruin, with no health insurance to soften the blow, is not free. A malnourished child, an uneducated child, a child trapped in foster care — these children are not free. And without a few breaks along the way from government, such children in most cases will never be truly free."

September has been a turning point for Democrats, who have begun to show – in word and deed – how our faith motivates us to fight for the common good.  While Republicans will continue to fight for the coarse individualism where each person is left to fight for his own, Democrats will fight for the common good and in so doing stand up for the dignity of each person.  Whether that is enough to solve the Democrats' religion problem is anyone's guess.  What is not open to question is whether it is the right thing to do.