So, the journalistic group-mind agrees that this year it is appropriate to ask questions about the interaction of faith and political conscience because several Evangelical Christians are in the mix....

...but four years ago asking a candidate about his faith - including the effect of his father's adherence to Islam on his views or about his pastor's adherence to a weird kind of anti-Americanism - was totally off base because it intruded into matters of personal privacy.

Weird, huh?

Bill Keller of the New York Times decides that now is the time to uncork "tough questions about faith to Republican candidates...uhm, errr...candidates who are not Democrat...which is to say...candidates who belong to the dominant American religious tradition and therefore who cannot be discriminated against by definition because clearly asking such questions of a candidate whose pastor crowed about the mass murder of Americans would only be for the purpose of a political smear." 

Whew... I'm glad we got that impartial rule defined.

You have to love how the impartial Bill Keller likens religious belief to a hallucinatory belief in space aliens:

If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us, would that affect your willingness to vote for him? Personally, I might not disqualify him out of hand; one out of three Americans believe we have had Visitors and, hey, who knows? But I would certainly want to ask a few questions. Like, where does he get his information? Does he talk to the aliens? Do they have an economic plan?

Quick, name the fallacy.

According to my copy of the "Big Book of Cheap Shots," that would be labeling.

Strange Herring disembowls Keller's "tough questions" as the ideological argument they are, and uncorks a few that might be nice to lob at Democrats:

Now for the Sacramone Questionnaire for Nontheists:


1. Do you think that anyone who believes in the supernatural is delusional? If so, do you believe they should be treated medically? Do you believe they should be allowed to adopt children?

2. Do you think anyone who believes in six-day special creation should ipso facto be barred from holding public office?

3. Do you believe the religious beliefs of historical figures should be eradicated when discussing them in schools? For example, that Louis Pasteur was a devout Catholic who prayed the Rosary daily?

4. Do you believe that the religious faith of those responsible for the birth of modern science—Galileo, Copernicus, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, George LeMaitre (father of the theory of the big bang), Jesuit priests too numerous to mention, et al.—should be eradicated when discussing them in schools?

5. Do you believe that it should be noted that the rise of modern science occurred in the context of a civilization that was still explicitly Christian when teaching either European history of the history of science?

6. Do you think homeschooling should be illegal, as it is in some European countries?

7. Do you believe vaccines are a factor in the rise of autism cases? Do you believe parents should be allowed to opt out of vaccine programs?

8. Do you believe that global warming/climate change demands we de-industrialize?

9. Do you believe churches and all religious institutions should be taxed?

10. Do you believe that there is such a thing as life unworthy of life? Explain.

11. Do you believe assisted suicide and euthanasia should be made legal either on a state-by-state basis or by federal fiat?

12. Do you believe infanticide should be made legal? If not, when is a baby a human being protected by the rights any other human being enjoys?

13. Is there any point when an adult human being loses the right to life? If so, under what circumstances?

14. Do you believe polygamous marriage should be legalized, either on a state-by-state basis or by federal fiat? Do you believe that “minor-attracted adults” should be protected by law as a perfectly valid expression of human sexuality that was much more common in ancient Europe and among non-Western cultures? Do you believe incest and/or bestiality should be protected by law as perfectly valid expressions of human sexuality?

15. Do you believe that individuals are ultimately responsible for their behavior, or do you believe they are subject to too many internal (biochemical, psychological) and external (social pressures, strange belief systems) factors to be held accountable, such that many of our criminal laws should be seriously reformed or eradicated?