In a recent op-ed piece about religion and politics in America, Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post Writers Group, eventually comes to his point that neither the politics of sectarianism nor the politics of secularism fits the American model of "religious pluralism, humanized by tolerance." Point taken. Yet the opinion begins by describing Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum as "(t)he pre-Vatican II Catholic candidate." The pre-Vatican II Catholic. An odd phrase. With this code-laden description, Gerson neatly categorizes Santorum's religious beliefs, labels them--and marginalizes them. Pre-Vatican II Catholic and other such labels--name calling, in essence--cut against the fostering of a society built upon pluralism and tolerance. Lacking thought, honesty, or civility, labels serve the lowest form of persuasion, the ad hominum argument. Why debate ideas when you can attack, label, and marginalize the person? As such, labels are a first step to intolerance. As Catholics and Christians, we have a right, as do all Americans, to participate fully in the markeplace of ideas, including religious ideas. As aptly described by Archbishop Chaput, it is our duty.
