Dean’s Christmas
: A day after Howard Dean went out of his way to start dropping Jesus’ name before heading South to campaign, Jeff Miller [via Relapsed Catholic] points out that Dean’s Christmas message doesn’t mention Jesus but instead Saint FDR. It’s an odd message, in fact. Nothing about the warmth and joy the holiday, just another chance to obliquely complain about the war. It would appear that Dean’s having trouble grokking God.
: See also Franklin Foer’s fine New Republic piece that says a secular candidate can’t win the presidency (yet), quoting a 2000 Pew poll that says 70 percent of Americans want their President to be a person of faith.
: I’m not hoping that Dean turns himself into a Bush-Christian to win. Quite the contrary. If he is, in fact, a Congregationalist, like me — of the reform tradition, open, progressive, mainline, and not fundamentalist — then I’d love to see that view of religion take to the stage instead of just the conservative brand. But it appears that Dean is either embarrassed about religion or not religious (in which case, his sudden discover of faith would be dubious).
