Donohue's Unchained Melody

Originally posted at Talk To Action,

Whenever I need to write about the Catholic Right Bill Donohue is the gift that keeps on giving.

This time, Catholic League President is pouring his wrath on President-elect Obama's choice for Director of Domestic Policy, Melody Barnes. She seems to be an outstanding choice. And Donohue seems spooked.

Barnes has in recent years served as the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission; as Chief Counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as Vice-President at the Center for American Progress.

But just what does the Director of Domestic Policy do? The Director runs the Domestic Policy Council which oversees major domestic policy areas such as education, health, housing, welfare, justice, federalism, transportation, environment, labor and veteran's affairs; all domestic issues save the economy.  But it is most likely in the area of health, particularly women's health issues that makes Donohue's hair stand on end. Consider this screed from a November 25, 2008 Catholic League press release:

Barnes has earned her stripes on the religious left. When George W. Bush said in 1999 that his favorite philosopher was Jesus, the Baptist-raised Barnes went ballistic: She accused Bush of `creating the impression that we're a spiritually monolithic country,' thus 'excluding people of different faiths and beliefs, and that's wrong.' Had he claimed Karl Marx as his favorite philosopher, Barnes would have said nothing.

Hmmmm, let's see. According to Donohue, Melody Barnes is a member of the religious left (as if that were a bad thing) supposedly "went ballistic" when George W. Bush said his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ; and assumes that had the forty-third president had instead given Karl Marx instead, Barnes would have said nothing.

Melody Barnes, a Marxist? I couldn't find any evidence that would remotely support such an insinuation. I do know, however, that she did work as an associate attorney for Shearman & Sterling, a law firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions. It is also the 17th largest law firm in the world - hardly the second coming of the Politburo.

But wait, there's still more from Mr. Bluster:

She wants to overturn all restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, and her passion for abortion rights is so unyielding that she has served on the board of EMILY's List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Let me translate from Donohue-ese:  Like the majority of Americans -- as well a majority of American Catholics -- Melody Barnes is pro-choice and favors the federal funding and oversight of embryonic stem cell research. Of course, reading this press release an objective reader would get the false impression that it is Barnes and not Donohue who is farther away from mainstream American thinking.

But a-not-so-esoteric reading of Donohue's phraseology exposes what I believe is the source of his rant: fear.

Donohue, like many others on the Religious Right, often defines an individual as "religious" only if that person follows an orthodox version of one of their approved faith traditions. What leapt out at me in Donohue's unchained vitriol was how he described Ms. Barnes as "Baptist-raised" instead of simply (and more accurately), Baptist. Donohue thus slyly implies that Barnes no longer a practicing Baptist. Perhaps something less, or something worse! The interpretation is open ended. To dictate how another American should follow her faith - especially when it is not even his own faith - is at best, arrogant and at worst, theocratic.

But what is really eating at the Catholic League president's craw is the possibility that Melody Barnes exemplifies the ascendancy of an authentic religious Left. She is an elevated example that there are faithful people who care about the freedom of conscience of others,even those who have no religious faith at all. Yet even more terrifying to Donohue and his political allies is that we might be witnessing the ascendancy of a more tolerant Christianity.

Perhaps it is time for the mainline churches - including the more moderate members of my faith, Catholicism -- to step-up and reclaim our faith, and reach out to those who are religious but are driven away by strident uber-orthodoxies. But as we know, there are many of us who hold as Chris Hedges state so eloquently in his essay in Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America, a "faith in simple human kindness."

Yes, I know that we are still in the age of Opus Dei, Focus on the Family and Episcopalian schism.

But as the saying goes, the darkest hour is always just before the dawn.  The to-date dwindling mainline churches offer the vehicle for such a mission. And if such a movement were to succeed it, would weaken and perhaps overcome the Religious Right.

It could be that Bill Donohue and I see eye to eye in a way that surprises us both: Melody Barnes just may be the morning star.