Another Campaign Low: The God Test

In the North Carolina race for U.S. Senator, incumbent Elizabeth Dole has launched a t.v. spot that charges her opponent Kay Hagan as being "Godless." After attending a September fundraiser in Boston sponsored by a number of liberals, Ms. Hagan accepted a contribution from one of the the co-hosts, an individual associated with the "Godless Americans PAC." Ms. Hagan has owned up to accepting the money, however she insists it did not come from the PAC.

The Charlotte Observor offered the following commentary: "...Dole has resorted to the Big Lie technique, morphing a kernel of truth into a monumental fiction. How so?

"The Dole campaign stepped across a broad line, portraying Hagan as not Christian and suggesting she does not believe in God. The Dole ad shows a picture of Hagan while a woman's voice, not Hagan's, intones, “There is no God.”

"This is indecent. It is the modern-day version of the “white hands” ad, a lie born of Dole's desperation in a race in which she has trailed for weeks. It is also a deliberate attempt by Dole's campaign not just to distort the truth, but to shatter Hagan's admirable record as an elder for more than a decade in Greensboro's First Presbyterian Church, as a Sunday School teacher and a volunteer in her church's fundraising campaigns, worship services and community service programs."

In my estimation this intemperate act by Ms. Dole is another low point of religion and politics in 2008. It echoes the tacit religious test that all candidates are put to.

Remembering Colin Powell's recent comments, the issue isn't whether Ms. Hagan is "Godless" or not. The issue is the First Amendment right any American has relative to belief or non-belief.