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{"id":2346,"date":"2011-09-12T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2011-09-12T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T12:00:35","slug":"bill-keller-vs-the-religious-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2011\/09\/bill-keller-vs-the-religious-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Keller vs. the religious aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Less than a year after 9\/11, a New York Times<\/em> columnist stunned the newspaper\u2019s remaining conservative readers by suggesting that both the Vatican and Al Qaeda were on the wrong side in the global war against oppression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe struggle within the church\u201d in recent decades, he argued, is \u201cinteresting as part of a larger struggle within the human race, between the forces of tolerance and absolutism. That is a struggle that has given rise to great migrations (including the one that created this country) and great wars (including one we are fighting this moment against a most virulent strain of intolerance).\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, he noted: \u201cThis is \u2026 the church that gave us the Crusades and the Inquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symbolism of \u201cIs the Pope Catholic?\u201d<\/a> increased a year later when the self-proclaimed \u201ccollapsed Catholic\u201d who wrote the essay was selected as the new executive editor of the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now, shortly before stepping down as editor, Bill Keller has ignited another firestorm with a Times<\/em> column arguing that religious believers \u2014 especially evangelicals and conservative Catholics \u2014 should face stricter scrutiny when seeking higher office.<\/p>\n

After all, he noted, if a candidate insists that \u201cspace aliens dwell among us,\u201d isn\u2019t it crucial to know if these beliefs will shape future policies?<\/p>\n

Yet Keller also claimed: \u201cI honestly don\u2019t care if Mitt Romney wears Mormon undergarments beneath his Gap skinny jeans, or if he believes that the stories of ancient American prophets were engraved on gold tablets and buried in upstate New York, or that Mormonism\u2019s founding prophet practiced polygamy (which was disavowed by the church in 1890). Every faith has its baggage. \u2026 I grew up believing that a priest could turn a bread wafer into the actual flesh of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

What gave this manifesto legs online was his decision to draft tough questions for suspicious believers such as Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. After all, he argued, voters need to know \u201cif a candidate is going to be a Trojan horse for a sect that believes it has divine instructions on how we should be governed.\u201d<\/p>\n

For starters, he said, journalists should ask these candidates if America is a \u201cChristian nation\u201d and what this would mean in practice. And if elected, would they hesitate before naming a Muslim or atheist as a federal judge? Voters also need to know if candidates hold orthodox Darwinian views on evolution.<\/p>\n

Journalist Anthony Sacramone, who blogs at the journal First Things<\/em>, was one of many conservatives who immediately turned Keller\u2019s questions inside out<\/a>. For example, he thought reporters could ask some candidates: \u201cDo you think that anyone who believes in the supernatural is delusional? If so, do you believe they should be treated medically?\u201d Here\u2019s another one: \u201cDo you believe that there is such a thing as life unworthy of life? Explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with Keller\u2019s essay, argued Amy Sullivan, author of \u201c The Party Faithful<\/a>: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap,\u201d is that it settled for aiming tough questions at Republicans, instead of seeking relevant questions sure to probe the beliefs of all candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a candidate brings up his faith on the campaign trail,\u201d she noted, blogging for Time<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthere are two main questions journalists need to ask: (1) Would your religious beliefs have any bearing on the actions you would take in office? And (2) If so, how?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason Keller\u2019s piece created controversy and hostility was that it contained crucial errors, such as grouping Santorum \u2014 an active Catholic \u2014 with GOP candidates \u201caffiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity.\u201d It didn\u2019t help, noted Sullivan, that his piece \u201cread like a parody of an out-of-touch, secular, Manhattan journalist,\u201d with its references to evangelicals as \u201cmysterious\u201d and \u201csuspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also easy to contrast the tone of Keller\u2019s broadside with the values he preached in a 2005 letter \u2014 entitled \u201cAssuring Our Credibility (.pdf)<\/a>\u201d \u2014 that tried to address the concerns of his newspaper\u2019s critics, including many who frequent religious sanctuaries.<\/p>\n

It is especially important, he concluded, for all members of the Times<\/em> staff to make a \u201cconcerted effort \u2026 to stretch beyond our predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation. \u2026 This is important to us not because we want to appease believers or pander to conservatives, but because good journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"