Detroit Examiner columnist
Brandon Schlacht takes issue with the American Values
Network ad, targeted at liberal Christians, which
criticizes Republican affection for Ayn Rand.
Schlacht writes:
Members of the American Values Network have come out in
opposition to Ryan based on their Christian faith and
Ayn Rand's atheism; however, while Ryan was indeed
influenced by Rand and would like to see her Objectivism
influence more of Washington's policy, his budget is not
wrong due to Ayn Rand's lack of belief in a supreme
being. The real issue is not atheism, but Randian dogma,
which holds a strict commitment to cutting government,
promoting libertarian ideals, and allowing for the best
to emerge, even if it occurs at the expense of the
downtroden. . . .
The real issue isn't God with Paul Ryan's budget, but
his strict belief that one ideal and one political
ideology will fix the crippling budget problems the U.S.
faces.
The American Values Network is run by the principals of
the Eleison Group, a political consulting firm which describes itself as "a full-service
consulting firm helping political, non-profit, business
and government entities better understand America’s rich
and complex faith landscape and build relationships with
people of faith from across the ideological spectrum on
the local and national level." It is boasting on its
website of its attendance at the upcoming Netroots Nation
conference where principals Burns Strider and Eric Sapp
will be on a panel, "Moving Forward With Faith."
The description on the Netroots Nation website reads, "A
clear lesson to from our recent history is that faith and
values communities are increasingly proving to be critical
to successful progressive advocacy." Other panelists
include Elizabeth Denlinger, Director of Campaigns at
Sojourners, which her biography describes as "one of the
largest networks of progressive Christians in the nation,"
a characterization some progressive Christians take issue with. (I'm also speaking
on a different panel at the same
conference.)
Eleison and the AVN are focused on making "people of
faith" "comfortable" with Democrats, who've gotten a bad
rap about being "hostile" to religion. That rap,
incidentally, came from Democratic "faith" strategists,
not because Democrats are demonstrably anti-religion, but
it has resulted in some painful pandering to make up for
these alleged deficiencies. Eleison's Democratic clients
have included Alabama's Parker Griffith,
who went on to become a Republican, and North Carolina's
Heath Shuler, a prominent Blue Dog who recently spoke at the Family Research
Council's Watchmen on the Wall conference for pastors,
where he insisted that if Christians "had provided for
people in our community," then we "wouldn't've needed a
debate on health care." The Family Research Council,
incidentally, has signaled its full support of the Republicans'
budget-slashing. But at least Shuler's not an atheist!
At the AVN website touting the anti-Rand ad, AVN notes, "The choice is simple: Ayn
Rand or Jesus Christ. We must choose one and forsake the
other."
Will the AVN ad help Democrats? Last year, Sapp blamed Democratic losses in the
midterm election on a failure to engage in faith outreach,
a claim that Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion
Research Institute rebutted, by showing that not only
were Sapp's numbers off, but his theory was "untenable.
Assigning the lack of religious outreach any primary,
causal role in this particular election is simply not a
credible argument, given the economic context, comparable
losses among other important demographic groups, and the
particular makeup of the 2010 electorate." Other strategy
emanating from Eleison has included Sapp's offering up of his firm's claimed 25
million-name list of evangelical voters so Democrats can
"educate" them about how (in Sapp's mind) Tea Partiers are
pro-gay and pro-choice and therefore shouldn't be trusted.
Sounds like a winning Democratic strategy, right?
Sapp and Strider's latest strategy is to highlight Rand's
atheism. While it is indeed a profile in Republican
hyprocrisy that conservatives complain about liberals
"persecuting" Christians, and insist that we are a
"Christian nation," and then turn for inspiration to Rand,
who denigrated organized religion, Rand's atheism is not
what's wrong with Ryan's budget. Schlacht warns,
"Christians are making a mistake by attacking Ryan due to
Rand's atheism by isolating themselves from likely allies.
They have remained so committed to their dogma regarding a
supreme being, that they may alienate their own Liberal
allies, damaging relations between the faithful and
faithless for some time." That might be overstating the
case. But we don't have to choose between Rand and Christ.
