Richard Neuhaus's Death and the Catholic–Evangelical Tension in Politics

Only two political topics even unite Evangelicals with each other, the sanctity of life, and recognition of our nation’s heritage and traditional values in our schools and public life. We resent the Democratic media’s continual ridicule of us, exemplified by those who ignored Huckabee’s decade successfully governing a Democratic and African American state, assuming that his previous occupation as pastor disqualified him for any rational voter.

White evangelicals showed this election that they are not irrational bigots, they will come out in force to support a Mormon, a woman, or a Catholic of Asian descent, if they believe they have a chance to be elected and defend the two values above. Most Americans believe in those values, Evangelicals are those most willing to fight for them. Committed Evangelical donors give most of their donations to evangelical missions, Christian Education, and care for the most needy around the world. They simply won’t waste their money or time on a candidate like McCain or Dole that offer no commitment to the values above, and many will support Obama if they prefer his position on the war, environment, taxes, health care, etc.

Many evangelicals feel that the Republican Right has wasted billions of their dollars and hours but failed to reduce abortion, or slow the onslaught on traditional values. In Obama’s African American heritage, churches freely support those values and Democratic politicians from the pulpit, in ways white evangelicals don’t dare. If Obama and Kaine can do the following two things, Evangelicals like me will help reelect him in a landslide.

1.) Include funding to cover medical and counseling expenses for mothers that give their child up for adoption, reducing abortion, providing healthy children for couples unable to conceive, and reducing the personal and national expense of international adoptions. Affirm support for reasonable state parental and partner consent requirements, the only victory pro-lifers can claim.

2.) Publically affirm the role that faithful mothers and fathers, teaching their children faith and morality, have had in American history. Recognize that these habits, along with charitable giving, homeownership, and entrepreneurship, while imperfect still have a greater chance of making Americans happy and America great than other ways of life. This is why our legal/tax policy must continue to encourage these habits. Others should have the right to pursue happiness other ways, but should not use public schools and civil rights organizations to indoctrinate our children against those values and remove them from our society.

This will go far to take away the fear Evangelicals have of the Democratic Party, and finally realign its priorities with the Catholics and African Americans that have kept it alive, without emotional religious wedge issues between the major parties maybe most Americans can again unite behind the best qualified of either party.

Lawrence of NE 7:52AM January 11, 2009

Richard Neuhaus, a Canadian by birth, was a New Yorker by preferance and Catholic by choice (and grace).

As one who also grew up in the Ottawa Valley, though on the opposite side and in the Anglican tradition, I like to think that I share much in common with perhaps the most talented expositor of what he would call "the Great Tradition" to live on this side of the Atlantic since the passing of the former Lutheran Prof. J Pelikan (first to Orthodoxy and latterly to God).

Neuhaus like Pelikan, longed, as I do, for the healing of a six century breach in the Christian body.

Growing up with French, Irish and other assorted Catholics helped to make us both "high" church Christians: he a Lutheran, me an Anglican. For different and similar reasons we long for and hope for the coming together of all truly Catholic Christians be they Anglo-Catholic, Lutheran or other.

If Fr Neuhaus did nothing else, I am sure that in his continuing prayers he is hoping to advance that single cause which would do more for the unity of humanity than anything else - the healing of the breach in the Body of Christ.

Requiescat in pacem

of 7:06PM January 09, 2009

Catholics and evangelicals are only allied on one subject. There is a very thin veneer even on that one subject: abortion, and some evangelicals disagree on that. With some of the cheerleaders of Evangelicals and Catholics Together disappearing from the scene, including Fr. Neuhaus, I predict that some of these old antagonisms, which have gone underground for politically-correct reasons, will resurface.

Ben of MO 4:46PM January 09, 2009