Puffin’s Place

Is anyone but me continually discovering that the media believes that values voters is a phrase synonymous with the evangelical right? Most recently CNN is touting an upcoming Obama stint on 360; the promo asks “Can Barack Obama bring God back into the Democratic Party? “AC 360°” looks at his strategy to court “values voters.” (Check out the front page of today’s ol CNN news.)

Not only do was I not aware that God had left the Democrats but, as a relatively passionate agnostic, I certainly had no idea that only the religious have values. Wow. That is pretty scarey.

And obnoxious.

I can prove that the religious have no special hold on values: I find the notion of God annoying and pointless. However, gasp, I have values. I value integrity. I value candor. I value kindness. I value any number of qualities and acts. I would even hazard that I value certain intellectual and social and human acts and commitments more than many Christians who seem perfectly happy to espouse God and torture another human being or believe they are called by god to be president yet cannot tell the truth. (Right, GWB?)

Perhaps CNN and the rest of the media have difficulty sorting out what is god and what is a value because to do so would demand surrendering the canned phrase and searching for the right words.

I am happy for the believers among us who manage to be both religious AND ethical. But make no mistake: this country is filled with people who have chosen ethics over belief. Perhaps if the media did not accept the meaningless shorthand of our times as well as the unspoken and growing aspersion on those who are thoughtful but not religious, we might be developing a language of actual content.