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Commentary - Nov 7, 2008 - Printable Version
- Barack To The Future
by S. K. Eleton - Theocracy Watch
First of all, just let me say Congratulations to our new President-elect, Barack Obama. This has been a truly historic moment. I know that people all over the world were watching closely to see if America would redeem itself after that Black Tuesday in 2004 when the American electorate, for some reason still inexplicable to this day, decided to return George W. Bush to the White House in a close, and possibly not totally aboveboard, presidential election. At this point, we all still seem to be in some sort of shock (relieved shock, of course) as we realize that, soon, we’re going to be able to say President of the United States without gagging. I will openly acknowledge, Mr. Obama, that I have not been fully supportive of your candidacy, and that in fact, I was not able to bring myself to vote for you in your historic moment. For those who have been following my columns over the past few months, the reasons should be now be crystal clear. This was not a decision easily nor lightly taken. I was a very big supporter back in 2004, though I must admit I winced frequently during your convention speech. I have followed your Senate career with interest, and have had many moments of concern throughout that time, but remained convinced that these were insignificant. When you declared as a candidate for president, I was still with you, though not wholeheartedly, and I had another candidate that I favored (though this was a candidate that was more than obviously not going to make it through the primary). I have wavered back and forth for several months, but my resolve not to vote Democratic this year became rock solid on that infamous day (for me) when the Democratic Party had the non-believers symbolically ushered to the door during the prayer gathering. It was a very painful moment for me the day I went down to change my voter registration, departing the Democratic Party after 30 years of extreme loyalty, ushered to the door by a party that wanted my money and my vote, but didn’t want to be seen in public with me.
In the end, when it all came right down to it, Mr. Obama, I desperately hoped that you would win (no, I didn’t pray for your success; I hope you’ll understand why not). Right now, our chief safety net against theocracy is the court system, and it would be nothing short of disaster to allow John McCain to finish the job that his predecessor started, packing our nation’s courts with narrow, bigoted ideologues who have committed their life to tearing the Constitution to shreds, and using it as toilet paper in the Capital Rotunda bathrooms. For all the other worries that I have, I feel confident that the judges you will appoint will be skilled, upright, and practically bursting with integrity. For this reason, I nearly cried myself to sleep last night in my relief after hearing that you had managed to catch this country on fire with the spirit of change. Now I know what it feels like to be present at a truly historic moment. You, and your worthy former opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, had the courage and the fortitude to step out from the crowd, and volunteer to lead us forward into a new future. Only one of you could represent that future, and you will be that one.
Now, I would like to tell you about a group of special people, people that I hope you will be able to include in your new future. These are people that are probably the most maligned, most hated, most feared group of people in America. They are people that could not hope to win the presidency, even in this supposedly civilized and enlightened time. These are the people who do not believe in God, who do not look to a Supreme Being for guidance, but instead have to muddle through on their own, relying on their own conscience and their own moral sense to help them through. In America today, voters tell pollsters by large margins that they would never consider voting for an atheist for president. Fortunately for you, the atheists don’t share the same prejudice against believers that believers have against atheists; if they did, you would not have been elected. This group of people make up an increasingly large minority in the electorate; in fact, the fastest growing religious identification in the country. With more than 16% of Americans now telling pollsters that they do not have a god (though many still hesitate to use the dreaded “A word”), non-believers make up a voting bloc large enough to throw an election. No, we are not monolithic in our voting patterns. Though by far the largest portion of us are Democratic, there are a fair number of Republicans and also a great many Libertarians among our number. We also boast of a great many Independents (what else can you expect from free-thinkers?), and I have no doubt that there are other party affiliations, as well. In spite of the diversity, studies have suggested that, on the whole, our group tends to vote predominantly Democratic. The majority of believing Americans insist that their candidates must share their belief; not necessarily in their god(s), but in some religious creed. This is in contrast to non-believing Americans, who are able to cast their vote every election cycle for a person who not only believes in something they are unable to believe in, but who might possibly hold them in contempt for their inability to believe. You should be glad that this is the case; if the majority of non-believing Americans had chosen to do like the believing Americans, and had insisted on a candidate that was more compatible with them religiously, you would not have won the presidency.
All we ask of you, Mr. Obama, is that you take a different path than the party chose in the days preceding the convention, where non-religious Americans were made to feel like outsiders, and indeed were even ushered to the door, unwelcome in the giant revival that has taken over American politics. Our requests are not for special preference, but only for equal rights with believers. We ask only that our governmental spaces remain neutral with regard to religion; that religion be kept in the homes, the churches, and the private businesses of our nation. We will support enthusiastically the right of religious Americans to display their religious symbols, to pray out loud or to themselves, to have moments of silence or moments of ecstatic religious celebration. We do not support the right of believers to move their religion into the public spaces that all of us share, all of the 300 million diverse individuals that make up this country. We ask that the government remain strictly neutral with regard to religion; not just between different sects and different religions, but between religion and non-religion, as well. With your leadership, we can return this nation back to a secular entity where all citizens are equal, and all feel like they are part of the civic life of the nation. Our national motto should once again become “e pluribus unum” instead of “In God We Trust”. Our money should be returned back to being Caesar’s, leaving to God that which is God’s. Our Pledge of Allegiance should be restored to its former state, before it was mutilated by witch-hunters in the fearful days of the McCarthy red scare. The National Day of Prayer should be shelved, or should become a strictly an interdenominational church affair, without Presidential proclamations, without Congressional support, and without the excessive entanglement between government and religion that has characterized it since its beginning. To do these things is not to express hostility toward religion; not at all. It is merely to remove the hostility that currently exists toward those of us that do not share a belief in a Supreme Being of any sort. Only when that has happened can this nation begin to move forward as a nation again, without the artificial divisions that come from differing religious identifications, from labels that say very little about who we are as people, but establish an indelible impression in the minds of those around us, an impression arrived at easily, lazily, without any need to think. Few atheists can live up to the terrible reputation that we have received. Most of us are hard-working people, neighbors of believers who don’t even realize we don’t share their belief, good people who lead moral lives, contribute to our communities and to local charities, and quietly go about our business, sharing most of the same values as believers.
Mr. Obama, I hope as you enter into the difficult business of rebuilding a shell shocked nation, you will take some time to think about those of us in the last remaining minority that it is socially acceptable to hate. I hope that, instead of bringing us together in prayer, you will join with all American citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to build new, more inclusive, and less divisive traditions. We will never know in our lifetime which, if any, of the 900 different sects of Christianity in this country has the right answer. We will not know if it is the Jews, or the Hindus, or the Muslims, or the Wicca, or the Hare Krishna…the list goes on and on. Possibly, it is the non-believers who are correct; possibly not. Regardless, we must all somehow manage to live together as a nation, and rebuild simultaneously our worldwide reputation, our economy, our environmental protections, our unity, and our morale. This is a tall order. We won’t be able to achieve this if we are unwilling to accept entire blocks of people as being somehow outsiders. Pollsters tell us that believing Americans regard non-believers as the group least likely to share their vision of America. If they envision an America where all are required to lift up their prayers to a heavenly being, then of course they are right. But if they envision an America where democratic principles are practiced, the rights of the minority are protected, children are brought up in good health and educated well enough to compete successfully in the global society, where poverty, hunger, suffering, and hate are kept to a minimum, then they couldn’t be more wrong. This is the very America we believe in. We share the same values, the same desires, and the same sorrows as other Americans.
Once again, Mr. Obama, congratulations on your historic victory. This country has, at least for the moment, come back from the malaise that was threatening to engulf it, and dared to hope for a brighter tomorrow. That tomorrow, we are all hoping, begins today.
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