Book Review: Why Christians Don't Vote for Democrats by Richard Miller - Page 5

I do not for a minute question Miller's sincerity, but I fear that he, like many of his less articulate brethren, has fallen prey to the sort of top-down propaganda that recently brought us the much-hyped (and justly ridiculed) idea of a "War on Christmas." Just like frightened, insecure politicians, some Christian leaders use fear to assert their rule over their flocks. One example is the fear of homosexuals reflected in Miller's "Values" chapter, where he makes the execrable but all-too-common leap from homosexuality to evil acts:

Secular Democrats may believe sexual orientation is genetic, but we have yet to identify the gene for pedophilia. Some adults' sexual orientation is toward children, but this does not necessitate giving the same minority protections to pedophiles we now give to age, sex, color, or creed. Rape is natural in the animal kingdom, but it is also unacceptable to civil society.

He does it again at the very end of the book, predicting that legalized abortion will be followed by legalized infanticide. Intentionally or not, he is engaging in the same form of denigration by association that enables slave societies to view certain types of people as subhuman and not worthy of common rights, including even the right to be alive.

Miller's other bugbear is the Supreme Court, which, he says disapprovingly, "controls entire areas of law. The President and Congress can make a law, only to have the Supreme Court disagree with it, or effectively veto it." Well, yes. That's the whole point. But since Miller doesn't like some decisions that have come down from recent Courts, he proposes to scrap the whole system of separation of powers with a constitutional amendment to allow the President and Congress to overturn a Supreme Court decision by a two-thirds vote. In effect he'd like to use the Constitution to nullify itself.

"Christians," he says, "will unite their vote because the political agenda of the secular Democrats is obviously motivated by deeply intrinsic, internalized, and imbedded religious prejudice." You may need to read the book to decide if you agree with Miller's claims about prejudice. But you need only look around you to see that his vision of a united "Christian" vote can't come true in any foreseeable future.

And his perception of the Democratic party as the enemy of "Christian America" is looking more wrong by the day, as Americans of all creeds, whatever they may believe about abortion or school vouchers, raise their voices (and prepare to cast their votes) against the Christian right-backed Republican government that keeps using their hard-earned wealth to kill innocents abroad.

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Blogcritics' Culture and Theater Editor. In addition to reviewing NYC theater, he writes a semi-regular round-up of independent music releases. By day he is a computer professional and a freelance writer and editor, and at night he's a …

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