Test of faith: win or lose, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine is proving that Democrats can neutralize the religion issue with a sincere expression of faith

Washington Monthly, Oct-Nov, 2005 by Mark Murray

When people say that Democrats have a "religion" problem, they're thinking of the time when Howard Dean told reporters that his favorite book in the New Testament was Job. Or The Washington Post interview in which Al Gore summoned his evangelical verve and told Sally Quinn that he tries to make decisions by asking himself, "What would Jesus do?" Or, more recently, C-SPAN footage of Democratic politicians cramming Bible verses into their speeches seemingly at random in an attempt to win back values voters. The overall effect seems stilted and--worst of all--insincere.

It's no wonder, then, that despite concerted efforts by Democrats since last year's election--developing religious outreach, hiring faith advisors, and training candidates on how to "talk the talk"--Americans still aren't buying it. Only 29 percent of voters think the Democratic Party is religion friendly, according to an August 2005 poll by the Pew Research Center. It hasn't helped that religious conservatives have used events like Justice Sunday to charge that there is a war "against people of faith," and that a handful of conservative bishops have openly questioned whether Democratic Catholics are "real" Catholics. The end result? Everyone "knows" that Republicans are religious and that Democrats are not.

Take the 2004 election. George W. Bush was viewed as the candidate who inspired religious voters. John Kerry? He was seen as someone who wouldn't talk about religion except in African-American churches. That really wasn't the truth: Kerry talked about his faith in his acceptance speech, he discussed Catholic influences on his politics during the debates, and he attended mass nearly each week. But many voters and journalists just didn't buy that he was truly religious. (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are the two obvious exceptions to this rule; it's perhaps not a coincidence that they're also the only two successful Democratic presidential candidates in the past 40 years)

It's no wonder Democrats are frustrated. Some might look at the poll numbers and revert to form--give up, go back to ignoring religion, and thus confirm the rap against them. But before they do, they might want to take a look at the campaign of Tim Kaine, Democratic lieutenant governor and now gubernatorial candidate in Virginia.

Kaine is a Catholic who weaves his faith into nearly every speech, debate, and even some commercials. He's not without his critics, and it's not yet clear whether the decision will pay off for him. As of mid-September, he was neck and neck in the polls with Republican opponent Jerry Kilgore. But Kaine has already accomplished something few other Democrats can claim: No one questions his sincerity.

He's done it by talking about his Catholicism early and often, taking away the charge that it's a purely political gambit Unlike many Democrats who try to sound like Bill Clinton but come off as Jerry Falwell crossed with an android, Kaine talks like himself. He not only doesn't apologize for his religious beliefs, he even wields them as a weapon. As a consequence, Kaine appears to have neutralized the faith issue, freeing himself to make his case to voters about how he would deal with the state's economy, education, and health care. Win or lose, Kaine is already showing Democrats how to navigate the faith issue. It's not enough to get religion; they also have to get real.

Religious education

Sometimes, Tim Kaine doesn't understand his fellow Democrats. "[They] will say, 'Hi, I like to windsurf. I got married. I got a couple of kids. Here is where I went to college,"' when introducing themselves to voters, he explains. "People will share all kinds of things about themselves, but they won't share their faith. If you share the less important things in your life, why wouldn't you talk about the most important thing?" Kaine has just spent the day crisscrossing southwest Virginia--a townhall meeting in Marion, a peach festival in Stuart--and he has no such problem bringing up his religion with voters.

It may, in fact, be difficult to find a voter who doesn't know he spent time working at a Catholic mission in Honduras. So far, Kaine has mentioned it at each campaign stop, reflecting on the way that work shaped his devotion to public service. In a debate back in July, Kaine referenced the experience when talking about his opposition to the death penalty and abortion: "I came back from Honduras, having worked with poor kids, with a renewed respect for the sanctity of life." Even his campaign ads mention faith. "The Bible teaches that we can accomplish great things when we work together," he says in one.

It's almost too much. While posing for a photo with Kaine, the ninth-grade Junior Miss Peach mentions something about coming over from Honduras, and he lights up. "I was a missionary in Honduras!" Miss Peach, puzzled, explains that she was talking about the Honduras Coffee Company just down the street. Kaine is so enthusiastic, however, that it's hard to dismiss him as just faking religion. And the voters who show up to his campaign events seem to share his belief that Democrats should fight their image as being hostile to religion. "We've been made the bad guy," Jane Latimer tells me at the Marion town hall meeting. "We go to church, too," adds Ralph Booher.