One of the pious maxims of American politics for the last 40 years has been that a candidate should never be attacked on religious grounds. This stricture is eminently fair insofar as private faith is concerned. But when personal faith begins to determine public policy, then the issue becomes fair game.
When John F. Kennedy was running in 1960, he was called on, as the second Roman Catholic to seek the nation's highest office, to affirm his support for the separation of church and state. In a speech regarded as a turning point of his campaign, Kennedy memorably declared, "I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me."
President Bush's candidacy deserves the same level of scrutiny -- not because of what he might do in the future but because of what he has already done on behalf of an ultraconservative, mainly Christian constituency that has no qualms about trying to turn its faith into the law of the land.
There is no precedent in American history for the Bush administration's determination to infuse government with a highly specific set of religious values. Thomas Jefferson, a champion of strict separation of church and state even though his private religious beliefs remain a subject of debate, refused the request of evangelical religious supporters that he issue a presidential proclamation of thanksgiving to God for his blessings on America. James Madison vetoed a bill to grant public land in Mississippi to a Baptist church. And in the 1870s, Ulysses S. Grant made what would be an unthinkable suggestion for a president today -- that all church property be subject to taxation.
For nearly all American presidents before the current era of political piety, it would have been truly unimaginable to endorse a constitutional amendment dealing with any divisive religious issue. If gay marriage was not a hot issue in the past, the Constitution's omission of God was.
When Abraham Lincoln was approached during the Civil War by Protestant ministers demanding that he support an amendment to declare Jesus Christ the supreme government authority, the president cagily promised to take such action as "my responsibility to my Maker and our country demands." His action was to take no action at all.
The Bush administration, by contrast, has consistently taken aggressive measures to favor the most conservative religious elements in American society.
