Return to The Base Secure ... Now Check Its Premises
Mark asks: 1. To what extent do you think it helped Bush that the Bible Belt is Protestant and that Kerry is a Catholic?
I don't think it mattered much anymore. Catholic bishops didn't even want to give the host to Kerry, and he wasn't even invited to the Al Smith dinner this year because of his stance on abortion (they also disinvited Bush Jr. because they didn't want to seem unfair during an Election year). One of the most interesting cultural trends to emerge over the past few years has been greater cooperation between Protestant and Catholic organizations in their common opposition to things like abortion and gay rights. It's the same dynamic that we saw, for example, in the response to Mel Gibson's film "Passion of the Christ." Gibson's film was praised by Catholics and Evangelical Protestants alike, and their church organizations worked very hard, and harmoniously, to fill the theaters with the faithful.
And the commonality carried over into the election as well. I've seen a number of articles on this. The Miami Herald, for example, reports that evangelicals went 78-21 for Bush. Catholics gave him 54% of their vote (and Hispanic Catholics gave him 58% of their vote). As I mentioned in my article, "Caught Up in The Rapture," the emerging alliance between traditionally opposed evangelicals and conservative Catholics might very well reshape American politics and culture.
Mark also asks of my statement: "It will take nothing less than an intellectual and cultural revolution to rediscover and implement these sacred political principles that stand at the core of the distinctly American imagination." I've long been skeptical of the claims of American exceptionalism. Is it not more an _Enlightenment_ imagination?
Mea culpa. But I think that when I refer, somewhat poetically, to an American imagination, I mean "America" not as a national identity, but as an idea, one profoundly informed by the Enlightenment, for sure.
I don't think it mattered much anymore. Catholic bishops didn't even want to give the host to Kerry, and he wasn't even invited to the Al Smith dinner this year because of his stance on abortion (they also disinvited Bush Jr. because they didn't want to seem unfair during an Election year). One of the most interesting cultural trends to emerge over the past few years has been greater cooperation between Protestant and Catholic organizations in their common opposition to things like abortion and gay rights. It's the same dynamic that we saw, for example, in the response to Mel Gibson's film "Passion of the Christ." Gibson's film was praised by Catholics and Evangelical Protestants alike, and their church organizations worked very hard, and harmoniously, to fill the theaters with the faithful.
And the commonality carried over into the election as well. I've seen a number of articles on this. The Miami Herald, for example, reports that evangelicals went 78-21 for Bush. Catholics gave him 54% of their vote (and Hispanic Catholics gave him 58% of their vote). As I mentioned in my article, "Caught Up in The Rapture," the emerging alliance between traditionally opposed evangelicals and conservative Catholics might very well reshape American politics and culture.
Mark also asks of my statement: "It will take nothing less than an intellectual and cultural revolution to rediscover and implement these sacred political principles that stand at the core of the distinctly American imagination." I've long been skeptical of the claims of American exceptionalism. Is it not more an _Enlightenment_ imagination?
Mea culpa. But I think that when I refer, somewhat poetically, to an American imagination, I mean "America" not as a national identity, but as an idea, one profoundly informed by the Enlightenment, for sure.
Re: Two questions for Chris
(#46341)
by Roderick T. Long on November 8, 2004 at 12:05 AM
by Roderick T. Long on November 8, 2004 at 12:05 AM
As a resident of the Bible Belt, I can testify that right-wing Protestants do not regard Catholics as "real" Christians (though they do grudgingly prefer them to Muslims, Wiccans, and atheists). Moreover, I suspect that evangelicals tolerated Mel Gibson because they saw (correctly) that Gibson was in rebellion, in various ways, against his own church, and they inferred (wrongly) that this made him more "Protestant."
Re: Two questions for Chris
(#46314)
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 7, 2004 at 7:04 PM
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 7, 2004 at 7:04 PM
"I don't think it mattered much anymore."
... matters, not "mattered" :)
... matters, not "mattered" :)
Re: Two questions for Chris
(#46321)
by Mark Brady on November 7, 2004 at 8:24 PM
by Mark Brady on November 7, 2004 at 8:24 PM
Mark: To what extent do you think it helped Bush that the Bible Belt is Protestant and that Kerry is a Catholic?
Chris: I don't think it matters much anymore.
Mark: But could Bible Belt antipathy towards Catholics have made the difference in Ohio where the margin of Bush's victory was slim? Greater cooperation and commonality between Catholic and fundamentalist Protestant churches may have reduced but by no means eliminated traditional hostility towards Catholics.
Chris: I don't think it matters much anymore.
Mark: But could Bible Belt antipathy towards Catholics have made the difference in Ohio where the margin of Bush's victory was slim? Greater cooperation and commonality between Catholic and fundamentalist Protestant churches may have reduced but by no means eliminated traditional hostility towards Catholics.
Re: Two questions for Chris
(#46353)
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 8, 2004 at 6:29 AM
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 8, 2004 at 6:29 AM
One would think that the traditional antipathy (that Roderick speaks of as well) might have carried over in Ohio. Except the raw data is actually slightly better than the national average. According to the Washington Times, Bush took the Catholic vote 55 to 45, and some Republican strategists believe that it was the wooing of Catholics on matters of the socially conservative agenda that made all the difference in that state. Interestingly, Al Gore actually carried the Catholic vote in the 2000 election, and Kerry, who is Catholic, failed to.
Re: Two questions for Chris
(#46363)
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 8, 2004 at 9:01 AM
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 8, 2004 at 9:01 AM
BTW, on this topic of Catholics and Protestants: take a look at this article by Carolyn Curiel, "How Hispanics Voted Republican," which provides further evidence of GOP inroads in both religous communities.
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on November 7, 2004 at 6:55 PM