2 Versions of Faith Outreach at the National Political Conventions This Summer

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http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2012/09/11/36726/clergy-and-conventions-the-politics-of-prayer/


Archbishop Timothy Dolan offered his prayer at both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention this year.
By Jack Jenkins | September 11, 2012

When Catholic Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan announced he would be offering a prayer at this year’s Republican National Convention, commentators were quick to weigh in with both words of praise and derision. Conservative Catholics such as Thomas Peters, who writes for CatholicVote.org, lauded Dolan for his willingness to establish “close working relationships” with Republican politicians. Centrist and progressive pundits, meanwhile, blasted Archbishop Dolan’s decision as overly partisan and dubbed him “The Republican Cardinal.”

But just days before he offered his prayer at the Republican National Convention, Democrats announced that they too invited Dolan—who publicly criticized the Obama administration earlier this year for what he and others claim were attacks on religious freedom—to give the benediction at the Democratic National Convention and that he accepted. That revelation prompted David Gibson of the Religion News Service to wonder if Archbishop Dolan’s bipartisan appearances could “upstage GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s Catholic outreach.”

What’s more, Sister Simone Campbell, head of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, and leader of the recent nine-state “Nuns on the Bus” tour, a progressive-leaning social justice campaign, was also revealed to be a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. As with Dolan’s announcement, pundits responded quickly, including Democratic political strategist James Carville, who quipped, “The bishops are Republican and the nuns are Catholic.”

In the midst of the back and forth over the political and theological alliances of Archbishop Dolan and Sister Campbell, many are curious as to what the presence of religious leaders at a political convention actually signifies to voters, as well as whether their participation at political gatherings violates the separation of church and state.

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