Neptunus Lex

It is waggishly said of Episcopalians by our more abstemious brothers in Christ that wherever any four are gathered, there you can usually find a fifth. By that standard at least, I am as religious as the next man. And truth be told, much of my understanding of morality is informed by my faith, a fact that probably ought not surprise the regulars here. We are a nation of laws, and what are laws but expressions of what we collectively find to be moral and immoral behavior, subject to regulation?

I would argue that even a secular understanding of morality (in a broad sense) is imprinted - in the West, at least - by a logos who was in turn inspired by the “Golden Rule.” Whether or not an abiding and general secular morality can be sustained outside the ordered instruments of faith is an experiment that Europe is now undertaking. We should know the results in about a hundred years, so long as no external influence corrupts the test. That, by the way, is by no means certain.

With all of that said, I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of God-talk I’m hearing this election cycle. I find it as unlikely that a Baptist preacher and former governor of Arkansas now leads the primary polls of the Republican Party as I do to find Barack Obama opening a speech in South Carolina by saying that he was “Giving all praise and honor to God,” and urging those present to “Look at the day that the Lord has made.”

A simple, “God bless America” stuck there on the end used to suffice.

Mike Huckabee may well be a charming candidate, with many compelling virtues. But he will never, I think, be president of the United States of America. And now Mitt Romney is reduced to explaining some of the less explicable doctrines of the Mormon church. How has it come to this?

Republican strategists cobbled together a privately uneasy coalition of pro-growth advocates, small government conservatives and evangelical Christians to form a powerful political base over the last quarter century. But the luxurious spending habits of “compassionate conservatives” seems to have strangled the small government baby in its ideological cradle while rendering the always popular tax cut plank fiscally problematical. The question is no longer whether government (and the national debt) should grow, but how fast. Once you’ve conceded that point a lot of folks that would otherwise consider themselves as potential conservative voters lose the plot.

In response to the Republican coalition, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean famously expressed the hope that red state voters would some day give up on “God, guns and gays” and vote their own self-interest. His way, in other words. After all, he no doubt reasons, if your expressed policy is to rob Peter to pay Paul, you expect to get Paul’s vote most of the time.

Speaking of Paul, these days it seems that every Republican politician who still believes in small government - really believes, I mean - is named Ron Paul. That worthy certainly has his legions of adoring fans. You see bumper stickers for him all over San Diego for example, and last night I saw thirty or forty enthusiastic supporters on a suburban street corner twirling signs in the cold. But I’ve got to believe that I have at least as good a chance of being elected president as he does. I mean no offense, but the guy’s kind of kooky. No way he makes it to the finals.

The dynamic seems to be that the Democrats have learned their lessons about overt hostility to religion - a bad thing - and seem eager to show their faith in a breezy, Reaganesque sort of way. Robbed by their actions of small government street cred and by the deficit from responsibly advocating much in the way of further tax cuts, Republican candidates are left to debate - on national TV - whether or not the bible is literally, word-for-word true. If this is what it takes in order to position themselves to the right of Democrats, I expect we’ll soon hear a candidate advocating the right to captive carry in church, just in case a gay person shows up.

Can’t be this is all we’ve got left.