The Religious Divide

The last two days have brought into stark relief another great divide in America. This divide matches almost exactly the attitudes of the two Presidential candidates. It is the Religious Divide. But it’s not a divide between one religion and another, but a divide between religion and anti-religion. It also demonstrates the opposing characters, not only of the two candidates, but also of their most dedicated followers.

Trump on the religious side of the Religious Divide

On the side of religion, at least in part, stands Donald J. Trump. He made that clear at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner, held Thursday night in New York City. The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation honors the first Catholic man to run for President of the United States. Proceeds of this dinner support various Catholic charities.

Donald Trump, good sport that he is, attended. By now everyone remembers the hilarious jokes he cracked about his opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and about the Democratic Party. (Trump left it to Master of Ceremonies Jim Gaffigan to criticize Harris for not attending.) What people might have forgotten is that he touched on the two (or three?) attempts on his life this year. In so doing, he explicitly thanked God for saving his life each time – but especially the first time.

Trump’s record and proposals are not a perfect match for an ideal Christian statesman. Against Alex McFarland’s Ten Questions Every Christian Should Ask About a Candidate, Trump scores 5.5. But Harris’ score is negative, because she refuses to consider any of the things Alex McFarland would have a Christian statesman do.

CNAV speculated, thirty-four days ago, that Harris would advocate for freedom from, not of, religion. Over the past two days, that is exactly what she has done.

Harris on the anti-religious side

Instead of attending the Al Smith Dinner, Kamala Harris sent in a video. She would have done better to record a monologue. Instead she recruited Molly Shannon to appear with her as “Mary Katherine Gallagher” from Saturday Night Live.

Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit gave a description and a partial transcript:

Harris began the video with a scripted message meant to appear heartfelt, stating, “The Al Smith dinner provides a rare opportunity to set aside partisanship.”

But no sooner had she started than Mary Katherine Gallagher awkwardly shuffled into the frame. “Hey, what’s going on? Who was that?” Kamala asked.

The bizarre skit continued with Mary Katherine delivering offbeat lines, telling Harris that the dinner was “one of the biggest dinners next to the Last Supper.”

Kamala responded, “It is a very important dinner, and it’s an important tradition that I’m so proud to be a part of.”

Really? Then why didn’t she attend? Of the rest, the less said the better. But “Mary Katherine” actually advised Harris not to lie, because “Jesus will be fact-checking.” Then she said, “Don’t forget to say, ‘Superstar’!”

That, at least, showed Harris trying to be funny, though the joke fell flat. But what she did instead of attending the dinner was not funny. She held a rally at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, Wisconsin. There she laid heavy emphasis on promoting a “right” to abortion. As has become customary, she railed on Trump for appointing three members of the Supreme Court majority that ruled that abortion would not be the “law of the land.”

We remember Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended.

At that precise juncture, two attendees shouted,

Christ is King! Jesus is Lord!

And Harris said,

Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.

And as the crowd cheered, Harris’ crowd controllers escorted the protesters out.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the incident, and took a tone clearly in sympathy with Harris. But Jennifer McKinney, a student at this campus, had a different take:

I was making a video talking about how sad I was that the loudest cheers at the rather small event were in support of abortion, when I panned over to the crowd that I heard speaking, and caught something I wasn’t expecting. Check it out:

The raucous manner this crowd of 2500 displayed, as Harris told the Christians to go to “the smaller [rally] down the street,” disquieted her, to say the least.

Further examples of the Religious Divide

Those examples say what side of the Religious Divide each candidate stands on. Other examples show that this divide is real. For example, Jack Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop is back in the news – again – for being on a court docket. Though the Supreme Court decided, 7-2, in 2018, that he shouldn’t have to “take all comers,” an Alphabet Soup attorney pressed the issue yet again. On October 8, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed this latest challenge – because the opposing attorney didn’t follow procedure. Phillips says the experience of more than six years has strengthened his faith. But this has also shown how hostile the American political left, and especially the Alphabet Soup Movement, are toward religion.

Catholics everywhere bristled at the Mary Katherine Gallagher skit. Two carried on a dialog on X denouncing that spectacle:

PolitiBunny: I adore Molly Shannon. I adore Mary Katherine Gallagher. I am Catholic. This is the most embarrassing, desperate, sad fail of propaganda I have seen in a long time. Bro.

Patty Martin: Yep. Every bit as cringe and blasphemous as Gretchen Whitmer’s Dorito Eucharist. There is nothing real or genuine with Kamala.

Dr. Taylor Marshall asked:

Jordan Zwack, quote-posting him, said:

Muslims aren’t idle, either. They’re not taking Trump’s side, but have begun a campaign to persuade their coreligionists to vote for anybody but Harris. This is happening in Michigan, which has a heavy Muslim concentration. The Daily Caller reported on the group “Drive for 75,” that wants 75 percent of Muslims to vote for anyone else but Harris, to deny her the State’s electoral votes.

They intend to punish Harris for an inconsistent policy on the Israel-Gaza War. But some rank-and-file Muslims have a more basic quarrel: they don’t feel safe any longer with the Democrats in power.

Analysis

Clearly the Democrats, especially Harris, are openly hostile to religion, and religious people know it. Republicans don’t all openly embrace religion, but neither are they hostile. This applies especially to Donald Trump and his supporters. Notice that the Democrats try to say that Trump hates all non-Christians – and rank-and-file Muslims aren’t buying it.

That could be because they know that Democrats are hostile to any religious values. They embrace secular humanism, which is the anti-religion of our age. Democrats, including many of their rank-and-file, want abortion on demand, and celebrate a part of their coalition that spits in God’s Eye. It’s one thing to struggle with a sexual or other sin, quite another to celebrate and flaunt it. That’s what Democrats do.

So the Religious Divide is between those who pay the proper respect, not only to their Creator but also to one another as God’s creatures – and those who do not.

Again, this confrontation was inevitable. These same people are on record saying that “family is bad.” Obviously they’ve bought the seductive message of their pretended benefactors, who want the human race to die out, except for themselves. But their opponents, especially the Christians, heed the command to “be fruitful and multiply.” Barring a particularly fearsome intervention, these “fruitful ones,” not the scoffers, are the future.