Non-Christians Need Not Apply

I have to be honest. When I began to hear about Harriet Miers's religion, I didn't give it a second thought. I KNEW they were trying to appeal to the Evangelical base. I KNEW the president would pick a Christian. It can be hard to be involved in politics if you aren't a Christian. This is something that I always thought was unfortunate, but I never really had to dwell on the issue. Let's face it, I'm a white, male, heterosexual, Christian. People rarely complain about any of those things, and as for the ones that do...they're generally powerless to do anything about those feelings.

There have been a couple of things (i won't say articles) written that have me thinking about some of these requirements. We tend to expect our politicians to be Christians. whether we like it or not, we understand that there'd be upheaval in most quarters if the Politician wasn't Christian. Now, we as Americans, like to believe in religious liberty and we operate under the fiction that a non-christian would be OK for office if they get the votes, but that's just a mild front. we know there's not much of a chance in hell that will happen, but hey! if you can do it, knock yourself out. What we tend NOT to like (at least we're usually vocal about it) is someone being TOLD they can't have a job because of their religion. Now we may be OK with the idea of that being the result, but it messes with our facade of fairplay if the rules SAY you have no chance. That just seems un-American, right?

Meet George W. Bush. He wants to appoint a conservative judge. That's fine. He has appointed Harriet Miers and the conservative wing of his party have lost their minds. Her main attributes (to hear the President tell it) seem to be that Bush knows her well and that she's a good christian woman. That last point has been stressed over and over now, not as a descriptive, but rather as REASON she got the job. She's the right KIND of Christian. I've grown numb to this sort of thing. It has been implied for so long for so many politicians, that it didn't even catch my eye when it was announced publicly: Non-Christans Need Not Apply. Part of the consideration for this job as impartial judge is to not only be a Christian, but the right sort of Christian. Any other person openly using those sorts of rules would be violating our civil rights laws. A manager at Burger King cannot say "Christians only" when hiring, but for the President, we've been told that it's the actual reason we've got this nomination. Perhaps it is telling when you no longer even have to bother with the niceties of the pretense of liberty and equality.