What Secular Tyranny?

In his column in The Crimson last week, Derek Bekebrede wrote that the Obama administration “has decreed that religion and religious values are no longer welcome in civil society.” Leading a vehemently anti-secular chorus of Republican presidential candidates, Rick Perry promised in a much-parodied television spot to “end Obama’s war on religion” which has supposedly made it impossible for “kids to openly celebrate Christmas and pray in school.” Even the ostensibly sane current Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, is convinced that the current administration is leading “an assault on the conviction and the religious beliefs of members of our society.” Given the rudimentary outline of the story—a president of purportedly non-Christian origin, a wave of outrage from leading intellectuals like Newt Gingrich—it would be possible for a visitor from Mars to conclude that President Obama is at war with religion.

Except, of course, that he is not. Despite how well most liberal secularists remember the outsize role of religion in policy from 2001 to 2009, they proudly elected a president in 2008 who promised to maintain it, allowing some minor adjustments. Inspired by his predecessor’s example, Obama kept open the White House’s office for faith-based initiatives, “giv[ing] religious figures a bigger role in influencing White House decisions” and consecrating a new level of intimacy between church and the highest levels of state. Presaging a national political career that would justify social policy ideas with themes from the New Testament, Obama proclaimed in his 2004 keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, “We worship an awesome God in the blue states.”
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