Althouse: "If politicians want their religious lives to remain private, then they can do the rest of us the favor of not talking so much about them."

December 9, 2008

"If politicians want their religious lives to remain private, then they can do the rest of us the favor of not talking so much about them."

Isaac Chotiner says it's fair to write articles about Barack Obama's failure to go to church, since he used religiosity to get elected.

15 comments:

George M. Spencer said...: You would think that by now someone somewhere would have published some article about Pres.-elect Obama's involvement with his Chicago church.

Did he teach Sunday School? Did he serve on any church committees or projects? All you'd gotta do would be go to the church and ask around about how Sen. Obama helped out.

You'd think that a guy who was a community organizer could have and probably did do good stuff for his area via his church.

If he had been a more clever politician, he would have gotten himself photographed ala Jimmy Carter helping build Habitat for Humanity homes or working in his church's soup kitchen.; 12/9/08, 8:27 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I must have missed Obama's use of religiosity to get elected. In fact, I thought he went to great lengths to emphasize he was never present in church when Rev. Wright was goddamming the US of KKKA.; 12/9/08, 8:29 AM
Henry said...: Isaac Chotiner says it's fair to write articles about Barack Obama's failure to go to church, since he used religiosity to get elected.

As for me, I reserve the right not to care.; 12/9/08, 8:29 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Daddy,

You missed the rallies in churches and the Obama Evangelical stuff then.

and Saddleback. Remember it?

and the Pro-choice Catholic astro-turfing?; 12/9/08, 8:42 AM
David said...: Hoosier Daddy--Obama's books were full of how I found Jesus and saw the light stuff. It was part of the "narrative."

That said, the whole topic is pretty uninteresting. How about more focus on how he is going to govern?; 12/9/08, 8:44 AM
Anonymous said...: Jesus didn't go to church so why should Obama.; 12/9/08, 8:47 AM
KCFleming said...: Why care about it now, when his mentoring by a radical clergyman spouting black liberation antiAmerican diatibes didn't cause any concern?

I won't read it and don't care; not anymore.; 12/9/08, 8:48 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: David said:

"That said, the whole topic is pretty uninteresting. How about more focus on how he is going to govern?"

That is our dilemma. Obama went to church when he needed to appear religious to get votes. Now he abandons churchgoing.

At work, he was the most reliable far left liberal Senator and state Senator. So you tell me, how will he govern if we look at his history?; 12/9/08, 8:58 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I forgot about Saddleback and I didn't read his books either. Yeah I guess I missed a lot of that stuff then.; 12/9/08, 9:00 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: At work, he was the most reliable far left liberal Senator and state Senator.

Well it remains to be seen if he'll govern that way. Some of what I have seen thus far is that he has lost some on the luster that had moistened the panties of the left. He's abandoned the windfall profits tax on oil companies, looks like we'll be in Iraq for at least another year and a half, he's not pushing for the repeal of Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, not sure now what to do about Gitmo, etc.

Right now he's looking a lot like Bush's Third Term.; 12/9/08, 9:03 AM
Richard Dolan said...: That Obama used church attendance and membership to obtain the political benefits acruing from it (mostly when he was starting out in Chicago, less so when he ran for President) seems true enough. From O's conduct, it also seems true that the whole thing was never central to his life, certainly not in the way that he suggested it was when the making that suggestion stood to gain him an advantage.

But there is nothing new about any of this, and it is hardly unique to Obama. Reagan was never a regular church-goer, and JFK (and Teddy and the other political Kennedys) have mostly been concerned about keeping up with the the public forms of Catholicism (baptisms, weddings, funerals) but not much else.

Chotiner has a point about Obama, but it is a small one.; 12/9/08, 9:27 AM
Anonymous said...: "JFK (and Teddy and the other political Kennedys) have mostly been concerned about keeping up with the the public forms of Catholicism (baptisms, weddings, funerals) but not much else."

Read The Prince, it's all there.; 12/9/08, 10:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Well, he said on 60 Minutes that he has a "deep faith in God" which protects him from fear about being killed in office.

Sounds like a closet Christianist to me! Funny how the media missed it.; 12/9/08, 11:11 AM
traditionalguy said...: Pres. Obama will use a new post-christian leadership style. Remember his announced approach to the world is to be the one who comes not as a dumb red-neck christianist American, but as a citizen of the world able and willing to bear the burden of leading the government of all Mankind. Being a Traditional Guy, I will miss the simple tradition of wisdom our Presidentr recieves from a Christian worship experience. But on the otherhand, since the World Government will need American support to get up and going, then who could be better positioned to serve in that Office than our new post-christian president; 12/9/08, 1:20 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: Ummmm..... this is pretty easy stuff.

A) By that standard shouldn't the press also have covered George Bush's not belonging to a Church after 8 years in DC? (Or the alcoholic Bush drinking booze recently, for that matter?)

B) Obama's relationship with his pastor/congregation was kind of, you know, disrupted. If he went to church now, he'd be attacked for using faith for publicity.

C) Faith is not measured by attendance records. Nor by how loudly or piously one observes.

D) The practice of one's own religion is a private matter. how organized religion and government interact is a public one that all should be able to address without being attacked.

E) Who said "Whereever two or more are gathered in my name, there am I"?

F) Judge not, lest ye be judged.; 12/9/08, 11:41 PM