Religion, Politics and Honesty

In the "Opinion" section of today's Washington Post we find two interesting pieces which point to the dangers of mixing religion and politics. An editorial on the teaching of evolution in public schools concludes that the overtly religious language used by our political leaders might not be doing our children any favors:

…the breadth and extent of the anti-evolutionary movement that has spread almost unnoticed across the country should force American politicians to think twice about how their public expressions of religious belief are beginning to affect education and science. The deeply religious nature of the United States should not be allowed to stand in the way of the thirst for knowledge or the pursuit of science.

William Raspberry points to a recent survey that shows that public support for compromise on issues with a religious dimension has markedly declined in the last four years. He concludes:

There are people who sincerely believe that they are called upon by their faith to promote the Kingdom of God by every means at their disposal: If they are teachers, by teaching the Word; if legislators or government administrators, by promoting virtue and by punishing not just crime but also sin.

Many who believe that also believe that the reelection of George W. Bush gives them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hasten the Kingdom.

While I deeply disagree with the agenda of the creationists and the other public policy proselytizers, I certainly don't advocate shutting them out of the public discourse (even if some of them wouldn't be so charitable to me). But I do wish that those on the other side would be more upfront about their real goals.

The debate over evolution in Dover, Pennsylvania, is a case in point. While members of the school board who voted to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" speak openly of their desire to put God back in the classroom, the members of the national anti-evolution movement know that such "honesty" will destroy their chances of surviving the inevitable court challenge. Instead, we get misleading rhetoric that goes to almost comical lengths to hide religious motivations and to claim instead that the real issues are sound science and academic freedom.

By all means, let's have a debate on these kinds of issues, but let's make sure it is open and honest. Oftentimes, however, the religious right is too interested in ends to give the morality of their means much thought.