Public Confidence in the Military

Wattenberg suggests that confidence in church leaders has declined because of their supposed leftward tilt. He cites such examples as the Presbyterian Church divestiture of defense industry stocks and the Roman Catholic bishops’ stance on the necessity of alleviating poverty in America.

It takes neither naivete nor myopia, neither of which Reaganistas like Wattenberg appear to lack, to overlook how much more damage his bedfellows, the Good News padres of the right, have done to religion in America.

Does Wattenberg really believe the Presbyterian Church’s action or the bishops’ sensible and humane pastoral letter can hold a candle in public consciousness (or in fact, for that matter) to the devaluing of religion done by Oral Roberts who claims if his supporters don’t send him $5 million, God will snuff him? Or by Pat Robertson, that would-be war hero and presidential candidate. Or by Jerry Falwell, to whom religious pluralism must mean something like the right for us to believe in more than one thing that he advocates.

Besides the fundamentalist right, the Catholic Church can also take credit for religion’s fall from grace. But not because of the bishops’ pastoral letter on poverty. Wattenberg has no trouble quoting one poll to show the large proportion of Catholics who disagree with it. He fails, however, to quote myriad polls, and other sources of evidence, showing Catholics not only disagree with its stand on birth control but also simply ignore it in practice. It’s reasonable to suppose repudiation of the church’s influence in the most intimate sphere of life, sexuality, has a greater impact upon its prestige than does disagreement--if it exists beyond one public opinion poll--with more abstract economic ideas.

Even ignoring other stupidities that have alienated so many, like the Catholic Church’s political meddling with the abortion rights of non-Catholics, a moment’s reflection--unencumbered by Wattenberg’s knee-jerk, right-wing ideology--should show that issues advocated by the right, rather than by the left, have debased Christian currency in America.

BRUCE ALLEN

Pasadena