Un-American

I said, ‘That’s a very un-American thing to say.’ I mean, this is a country that based on religious freedom. ~Josh Romney

Obviously, Mormons are free to take offense at evangelical and other Christian opposition to their religion, and I would be surprised if they didn’t, but could we please be spared this “un-American” argument?  First of all, it’s not very edifying, since it assumes that there’s something “un-American” about disagreements that inevitably arise between religions in a pluralistic society.  It also implies that the content of a religion is ultimately irrelevant to public life, and that the price of pluralism is the devaluing of truth.  Those assumptions are themselves extremely dangerous to a healthy religious pluralism in a free society.  It is supposed to be “un-American” to make these disagreements a reason for not voting for someone, which isn’t persuasive at all.  The more often I hear this argument, the more I resent the idea that you are somehow lacking in patriotism or American-ness if you take seriously that a candidate has significantly different fundamental beliefs that you don’t and can’t hold.  Besides, simply as a matter of tactics, berating people for being bad Americans is not a terribly good way of persuading them.