Atheists speaking at an interfaith service ... does that work?

[Synnical]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5897354.html

July 19, 2008, 11:56PM

Democrats of faith hope to attract believers to the party

DENVER — The request befuddled Leah Daughtry. The experienced political hand in charge of planning next month's Democratic National Convention — a self-described "black chick from Brooklyn" and ordained Pentecostal minister — didn't know what to tell the atheists.

Daughtry, 44, was preparing for an Aug. 24 interfaith service that will open the Democrats' gathering here — a first for the party. Before her was an angry letter from secularists who wanted to know whether atheists would be on the podium.

"Atheists speaking at an interfaith service ... does that work?" Daughtry asked last week. "I don't quite know. But they're part of the party, you treat them with respect. I'll give them an answer."

On a larger scale, it's what Daughtry and a growing number of Democrats of faith are setting out to do: hold together and build their party by claiming ground on religion and values that Republicans have successfully mined for years.

Sen. Barack Obama has incorporated faith outreach into his campaign since the primaries began. A new political action committee, Matthew 25, is running pro-Obama ads on Christian radio.

Despite Obama's robust religious outreach, only about one-quarter of white evangelicals support him, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life — about the same number that supported Democrat John Kerry at this juncture four years ago.

Edit to add NYT article on Ms. Daughtry

Can Leah Daughtry Bring Faith to the Party?



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20minister-t.html?ref=magazine

[frogmarch]

1. Why must there be

an interfaith service? Religion should be kept out of politics!

But if the Democrats insist upon having such a service, yes, atheists should be invited too, on grounds that they have faith that no evidence for deities exists (at least I do). Agnostics, Satanists and followers of Wiccam, to name a few, should also be invited.

[Az]

3. You will never be able to keep religion out of politics

A person's beliefs inform their politics. A person's religious beliefs however cannot be justification for a law. A religious belief cannot be placed as an official position of the government. Religion will always play a part in politics. What we have to fight for is making sure that those who make the laws understand that their religious convictions do not form the basis the laws they work to pass.

[rexcat]

4. The only problem with the mixing of religion and politics...

one only has to see what happened to the republican party. It has become a religious organization controlled by fundies. I really don't want that to happen to the Democrats. As an atheist, I feel we are barely tolerated by many Democrats and would never be accepted within the republican realm. Religion should be a private matter but things have really changed since the early 70's. That is when the shift started in the republican party.

Also good to see you post AZ, I always enjoy the insight you bring to the threads you respond to.

[onager]

2. Could that reporter be any more credulous?

Wow! What an article! Practically a miracle in every paragraph! Ex-cons turning to Jesus! Dancing! Miracle cancer cures! Speaking in Unknown Tongues!

The whole tone reminded me of similar gushing, fawning, uncritical articles about a religious figure in the past. He also ran an urban ministry, in San Francisco, where he fed the poor, hired ex-cons, provided company to the lonely, and performed the occasional miracle. His name was Rev. Jim Jones.

[frebrd]

5. Just as Bush made it clear...

that this was no longer my country, the Democrats are rapidly making it clear that this is no longer my party!

[Az]

6. Gonna bounce a spin on this to R/T

Just wanted to give a heads up here to acknowledge who posted it first.

[Synnical]

9. How did that go?

[Synnical]

7. Huff Po picks up on Daughtry's comments

Doesn't really add much, but at least he's writing about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronald-aronson/the-dncc-unity-event-secu_b_119013.html

The Dems' "Unity" Event: Secularists Semi-Invited
Ronald Aronson

Posted August 14, 2008 | 05:06 PM (EST)

When first avowing his religious credentials for president, Barack Obama said -- and then repeated many times since -- that "secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square." The party that will soon nominate Obama is to be praised for its acceptance of and respect for its religious members. However, it is the nonbelievers who are now being ignored.

Hearing of the plans for the prayer/unity/values event leading off the convention on August 24, Ron Millar, Associate Director of the Secular Coalition for America, wrote a letter on July 2 to Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Committee and planner of the "big tent" event. He asked Daughtry if nontheistic Americans were welcome and, if so, how this would be manifested.

While not replying directly to the Coalition, Daughtry did discuss the request with the Associated Press. "Atheists speaking at an interfaith service ... does that work?" a "befuddled" Daughtry was quoted as asking in a July 19 story by the AP's Eric Gorski. "I don't quite know. But they're part of the party, you treat them with respect."

The first sign that treating them with respect was not a priority for Daughtry after all was her lumping all notheists--who include not only agnostics but also humanists, skeptics, and believers in spirit but not a personal god--under "atheists." And the second came with the announcement of the lineup for what had once been thought of as a "values" and a "unity" event: no one represents the millions of secularists. Daughtry: "Democrats have been, are and will continue to be people of faith - and this interfaith gathering is proof of that."

More at link.

-Cindy

[Synnical]

8. They claim it's about unity.

http://www.dakotavoice.com/2008/08/atheists-want-to-share-their-faith-at.html

But how can someone who doesn't believe in the existence of a divine being be unified in faith with someone who does believe in the existence of a divine being?