I have a new guilty pleasure. With dialogue worse than "The O.C." and plots more incredible than "Joan of Arcadia," NBC's miniseries "Revelations" is not to be believed. Literally. It revolves around the mysterious adventures of a nun and an astrophysicist, united by the scrawlings of a brain-dead child, who uncover signs that the biblical "End of Days" is upon us. The program draws from the Book of Revelations, the same source for many of the beliefs subscribed to by the evangelical Christians who made the Left Behind books one of the best-selling series of all time. These Christians are also the target audience for a new series of ads for a telecast being put out by the Family Research Council. The ads, which show a boy holding a gavel in one hand and a bible in the other, feature the tagline "a filibuster against people of faith," referring to Democratic attempts to block some of President Bush's judicial nominees. The implication, that Democrats are anti-Christian non-believers, is, in my mind, much scarier than any End of Days scenario NBC could dream up.
Normally, I would dismiss such a telecast, scheduled to air on April 24, "Justice Sunday," as yet another radical right-wing Christian project. One of the men involved, after all, is the Rev. James C. Dobson, who made headlines earlier this year by alleging that a video featuring Spongebob Squarepants that was made to promote tolerance was in fact promoting homosexuality. However, as the New York Times reported last Friday, no less a politician than Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has agreed to appear in the telecast. Frist, who hails from Tennessee and is the Senate's only doctor, had been considered a front-runner for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination. However, in recent weeks, after his publicized posturing about the Terri Schiavo case, his reputation as a level-headed leader is being questioned. With this latest foray into the sphere of public morality and religion, the line between church and state is being dangerously blurred.
The ads stem from the ongoing debate about the Democrats' threatened use of the filibuster to prevent the confirmation of some of President Bush's judicial nominees and the attempts by the Republicans to stop them. Specifically, Sen. Frist has been advocating changing the Senate rules to prevent a filibuster, something for which he needs only a simple majority of 51 votes. This so-called "nuclear option" has provoked much criticism, mainly from the left side of the aisle, since it seems to override the checks and balances of representative government. However, more moderate Republicans such as John McCain have also said they oppose such a measure. Many liberal groups have run ads against such a change in Senate procedural law. The Justice Sunday telecast is a direct response to these ads.
There are a few major problems with Frist's decision to ally himself with people who see Democrats as part of an anti-Christian, faithless left. First, I thought that sort of rhetoric went out with McCarthy, More seriously, as the Senate majority leader, Frist is one of the leaders of the Republican party, and as such serves as an example for other Republican politicians as well as Republican voters. For Frist to identify himself so closely with a group with a clear conservative moral agenda sends a message that he may be less than willing to support more moderate Republicans as well.
There are also issues with the idea that the Democrats are using a "filibuster against people of faith" to block the nominations of conservative Christians who fail so-called moral "litmus tests." Such a phrase comes across as reactionary, since it implies that the faith of these judicial nominees and their supporters, an inherently Christian, usually evangelical faith is uniform throughout our society. However, as the US becomes an increasingly pluralistic society, to continue to legislate according to the values of one Christian denomination no longer reflects the will of the majority. Furthermore, the assertion that the Democrats are a faithless group is ironic in light of the last two presidential elections, both of which were lost in part because of the candidates' faith. There is speculation that Joe Lieberman, Al Gore's Vice Presidential running mate and a devout Orthodox Jew, did not help the ticket in some areas because of his faith. In the last election, John Kerry's Catholicism became an issue because of its progressiveness. Thus, the characterization of all Democrats as "faithless" is as incorrect as the idea that all Republicans are conservative Christians.
Ultimately, we should be able to have a debate about the legitimacy of the filibuster without questions of religion intruding. However, Senator Frist's decision to ally himself with the more radical Christian elements in his party precludes that opportunity. We are now stuck in a situation where issues of constitutionality are overlooked in favor of questions of public morality. This has the potential of bringing about an end of days in and of itself, as the confirmation process becomes an all-out war. And while this may not be as apocalyptic as "Revelations," I prefer my battles between the forces of "good" and "evil," no matter which side is which, to be confined to the television screen.
