JOSEPH N. BELL -- The Bell Curve

I wasn’t overjoyed when Sen. Joseph Lieberman was anointed as the

Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States. My feelings

had nothing to do with the fact that he is Jewish.

They were rooted in some rather basic political disagreements. And so

I have watched his campaign performances with a wary eye. And I’m finding

that his public approach to religion has become a good deal more

fascinating than his political positions.

He is reaching out in every conceivable direction with his unabashed

embrace of religious faith -- and he is touching chords in some rather

unexpected places.

This irritated me, at first, because I regard one’s personal faith as

a private matter. But his enthusiasm was infectious and finally turned my

irritation to puzzlement. Why was this working? And how did it differ

from the effort of the Christian fundamentalists to use the political

system to propagate their views?

I have heard and read a number of aggrieved Christian conservatives

complain that if they were as outspoken on a public podium about their

religious views as Lieberman has been the past few weeks, their comments

would be soundly criticized as inappropriate and over-aggressive. They’re

probably right. So why is Lieberman getting away with it?

First off, he isn’t altogether getting away with it. His thundering on

this key has drawn some lightning, particularly from the Anti-Defamation

League, which wrote him a letter suggesting, not very gently, that his

emphasis in political speeches on expressions of religious faith as a

prerequisite to morality have become “inappropriate and even unsettling.”

But he has shrugged off that criticism and will probably continue in

the same vein until he senses he is turning off his audiences.

That hasn’t happened yet. He apparently doesn’t regard the atheist

vote as significant or likely to go to George W. Bush, who named Jesus as

his favorite philosopher.

So why should he change when his exuberant embrace of religious faith

as a source of personal values and strength has -- so far, at least --

come back to him in warm approbation from his audiences?

Which brings us back to the original question: why is this true of

Lieberman when the candidacy of Republican evangelist Pat Robertson, for

example, evoked mostly criticism? Is there a double standard here as

Christian fundamentalists are strongly suggesting? Is this a kind of

reverse discrimination against the evangelicals?

I asked this question of several local Christian pastors who generally

approved of Lieberman’s expression of faith and don’t see a double

standard in his acceptance.

Said Dennis Short, pastor of Newport Beach’s Harbor Christian Church:

“I would be hard-pressed to agree with Sen. Lieberman that religion is

the only route to morality, but I’m personally pleased to see a person so

comfortable with his own faith able to live a strong and useful political

life, too.”

Added John Huffman Jr., senior minister at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian

Church: “I admire anyone who genuinely expresses faith in a noncoercive

way.”

They, along with Peter Haynes, rector at St. Michael’s All Angels

Episcopal Church, saw several logical reasons for the positive reaction

to Lieberman’s constant references to religious faith. Among them: people

are used to hearing Christian fundamentalists, but this Jewish voice is

new and fresh; he doesn’t take them to places they don’t want to go

(“Christianity is a proselytizing religion,” said Rev. Huffman. “And

Judaism isn’t.”).

As a layman trying to sort out political candidates, I can attest to

the second point. Religious proselytizing in a political speech doesn’t

sit well with a lot of Americans who have put down individual spiritual

roots, but want them watered rather then pulled up for a new plant.

Lieberman thus far is watering the old plants effectively, but this is

a slippery slope. If he gets carried away -- for example, by implying, as

he did the other day, that morality without religion is impossible -- he

may take a fall and carry Al Gore with him.

Most of us have no interest in promoting our own religious views. We

just want to be able to express opinions on secular matters without being

told that someone on the other side is speaking for God. When that

happens, we will be irritated -- whether it comes from Joe Lieberman or

Pat Robertson.

Lieberman told an African American church congregation in Detroit last

week: “Let us reach out to those who may neither believe nor observe, and

reassure them that we share with them the core values of America, that

our faith is not inconsistent with their freedom, and that our mission is

not one of intolerance, but of love.”

That’s why people are buying Joe Lieberman’s religious talk. I suspect

that people would also buy this message from the Christian

fundamentalists.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.