Religion and Race

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote an important column in Sunday's New York Times: "The Push to 'Otherize' Obama." Mr. Kristoff drew on a recent Pew Research Survey that found only half of Americans know that Mr. Obama is a Christian. Thirteen percent responded that he is Muslim. A surging sixteen percent responded that they "weren't sure" about his religion.

Mr. Kristof chronicled a campaign on the conservative side to portray Mr. Obama as Muslim. Certain Christian Rightists have even called him the Antichrist.

Mr. Kristoff made an audacious and troubling assertion: there's an effort to "otherize" Mr. Obama, rendering him "unAmerican." "

"What is happening. I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice," Mr. Kristof declared.

In my estimation Mr. Kristof is on target. Race lurks beneath the surface of this 2008 election. How the Religious Right is complicit illuminates an ugly aspect of the so-called culture wars that have engulfed the nation for years. These culture wars are not just about values; on white underbellies, hidden from the light of day, prejudice lurks.