TW: Unless you are political junkie you probably have not heard of Doug Kmiec, he is an Obamacon and constitutional attorney. He made waves with his support of Obama not only due to his Republican background but his strong involvement with the Catholic church. He publicly sparred with some of the Catholic hierarchy post-endorsement. This was a meaty interview so I will break it into a couple of posts. This one focusing on Obama and religion. Certainly evangelicals and doctrinaire religious figures get much attention but there is a different strain of religious figures who focus on other aspects of their religion than abortion opposition, gay marriage and literal biblical interpretations.
From Economist:
"...[Obama will be on stage at Notre Dame with] Father Theodore Hesburgh, aged 92, Notre Dame's president emeritus. Father Hesburgh's service on the US Civil Rights Commission from the late 1950s until 1972 (when he was dismissed as chairman by Richard Nixon) broke the back of racial separation in America. The third president will be Notre Dame's current leader, Father John Jenkins, whose academic integrity stands forthright against partisan conservative forces within the American Catholic church that today operate more with intimidation and fear than persuasion and charity.
In campaigning for the presidency, Mr Obama refused to follow the opposition’s consistent ploy of using religious differences as a tool of division. To that end, the president would do well to take a page from the campaign and encourage the graduates to bring their faith into the public square, while being careful not to assume that their religion will always be given preference.
Reflecting upon the university’s storied history, the president ought to remind the graduates that those who harbour doubt about our ability to address the corruption and self-centredness that caused our great economic engine to sputter; or those who question whether we can meet the health needs of the uninsured; or those who doubt whether we can honour, even in these times of terror threat, our devotion to liberty as well as international standards of due process and humane treatment, should come to Notre Dame to understand what it means “to believe” in the things that really matter.
I am certain the president believes, notwithstanding the overheated language of the demonstrators who will no doubt be present in unrepresentative number, that a genuine effort to translate one's religious belief in a civil and accessible manner will aid the pursuit of common ground even over the most difficult terrain.
The issue of abortion is indeed the rockiest terrain. There is no prudence in soft-pedaling his genuine difference with the church, though at any commencement–especially this one–I would advise the president that there is also no reason to dwell on it either. It would be fair for him to point out that while he deeply respects the Catholic perspective on life, the view that life begins at conception is not shared by all faiths, and the religious freedom to which the nation and the Catholic church is committed means this difference cannot simply be wished away. If Mr Obama really wants to wax philosophical, he might add that whatever difference exists is not a denial of the reality of moral truth, but the difficulty in its shared know-ability.
...the president never seems to tire from the search for common ground. He clearly should reiterate his view that nothing prevents all sides of this ethical clash from affirming the gift of human life–even though in different ways. For example, the president has been keen on reducing the economic and social causes that undermine the choice for life, and he shouldn’t be shy about saying how he is going about doing so.
...[Economist]: How do Republicans win back people like yourself–religious voters who favoured Mr Obama in the last election–without alienating religious conservatives?
Mr Kmiec:
• Find ways to do more than criticise; if you don’t like the president’s health-care proposal, demonstrate the efficacy of your own, not merely the supposed flaws in his.
• For the sake of the Nation, and the peace of the world, be appropriately sceptical of new or enlarged military commitments (viz, Afghanistan and Pakistan). Iraq is what started the GOP on its downward spiral and the fact that a sour economy allowed unjustified military involvement to recede as an issue in 2008 does not mean four years hence it will not loom large again.
• Stop talking about criminalising abortion if you don’t mean it; either vigorously sponsor this path, or find another.
• Find ways to involve all Americans in the party, especially members of the hard-working Hispanic population. They are naturally inclined to favour the family-friendly ideas of the GOP, so it is a shame that Republicans are obsessed with building border fences and overstating the problems of immigration.
...• On matters of faith, simply be true to America’s history: of all the dispositions that would secure our prosperity, said Washington, religion is indispensable. Where absolute religious belief contradicts changes in the cultural order like abortion or embryonic stem-cell research, and there is no discernible consensus to bring resolution, be open to the possibility of withdrawing government altogether."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/05/six_questions_for_douglas_kmi.cfm
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