A senator in need of remedial civics — and religion.
I apologize for Tim Kaine.
He’s the senator from Virginia whom the Democrats offered as their vice-presidential candidate not that long ago; he’s presumably one of the best they’ve got. In fact, he’s so good that he claims to have a better idea about the origin of our rights than does the Declaration of Independence.
So I apologize for what Tim Kaine said at a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing: “The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government but come from the Creator — that’s what the Iranian government believes.” He dug in. About Iran under the mullahs, he said: “It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities.”
That’s true enough of Iran. But part of the reason we can stand as a beacon of hope for those persecuted minorities is our deep and abiding respect for and stalwart defense of religious freedom. We value religion enough to acknowledge God in several of our founding documents. We acknowledge God during every session of the House and Senate. Schoolkids are taught that, whatever we personally believe as individuals and families, we have a tradition rooted in humility and gratitude. One may even argue that a healthy patriotism can only come from the knowledge that a Creator has final say in our lives and at the end of history. God gives each soul free will, and we protect that gift in our laws.
According to Kaine, that’s the stuff of theocratic tyranny. Iran’s oppressive leaders, after all, “believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator.”
Kaine’s now-viral rant came as the Senate committee was considering the nomination of an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor. (Sidebar: Way too many executive positions require Senate confirmation. A good reason to cut down the list would be to avoid such grandstanding by senators during confirmation hearings.) Riley Barnes, the nominee before the committee, had quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently emphasized “that all men are created equal because our rights come from God, our Creator; not from our laws, not from our governments.” Kaine — formerly the governor of Virginia, a state with a long history of faith and patriotism — acted shocked: “The statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
The senator probably doesn’t believe the nonsense he spouted. He does believe, however, that opposing the Trump administration is the way to power in his party. When “Trump = evil” is your ideology, say what you need to say.
What a gift this was to Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas who sits on the same committee! That “radical and dangerous notion,” he said, “is literally the founding principle upon which the United States of America was created.” He quoted Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and Virginian: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That Kaine was likely lying in this instance, given that in July, he called cuts in government spending on Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations — which receive federal money for immigration work — an “attack on the religious organizations so that they cannot do the work that their faith in their Creator compels them to do.” How convenient. Oppose our Founding principles when necessary to oppose Trump; embrace them for the same reason! And in recent years, what have some of our most neuralgic religious-liberty debates been about? The values of the sexual revolution. We already knew that Kaine considers himself a pro-abortion (legal and on-demand) Catholic. And this, by the way, is what I want to apologize to you for.
As more and more young people are noticing, the sexual morality of the Catholic Church offers mercy and healing. I go to Confession. Tim Kaine goes to Confession, or is certainly free to. But we are supposed to not only believe certain things — and stand up for them in our public and private lives — we are also supposed to share them. In recent decades, far too many Catholics have dismissed the inconvenient, including — in this most recent case — even that which is fundamental to Catholics and many others.
Tim Kaine, revisit your July remarks. The United States has a good thing going in its rootedness to God. Our identity can’t consist of hating — or loving — Donald Trump. There’s more to life. And thanks be to God for that.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.