“We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”
This powerful statement appeared in the Democratic Party Platform in 2008. However, four years later at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the words “God-given” were unceremoniously removed in an apparent nod to radical secular humanists.
It’s hard to believe that a party that has championed civil rights and social justice would now detach God from any of its goals and policies. Some have suggested that it is fitting for a platform that now supports the radical ideals of of funding late term abortions and the redefinition of marriage. Perhaps they had forgotten the words of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who the party paid tribute to, who once said "I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt — or religious belief." An unfortunate message was sent last week in Charlotte that religious believers of all religious faiths who belong to the Democratic Party have been deemed lesser American because of their faith.
However, no political party has the franchise on religious belief in God. Did the delegates at the DNC also forget the legacy of religious leaders who share their party’s values? Without God there would have been no Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement nor a Cesar Chavez and his crusade for human dignity and social justice for immigrant workers.
We hope members of the Democratic Party — especially those who identify themselves as Catholics — might call for their party’s leadership to reexamine the removal of God from their party platform. After all, it was our founding father, President George Washington, not a democrat or republican, who in his Farewell Address powerfully stated: “Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion, and morality indispensable supports. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.”
