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The religious press, by and large, was willing to accept Lieberman’s perceived contradiction in terms. But they, too, got it wrong. Voices from the religious left applauded Lieberman’s category-bending presence. He represented a "third Path," Jewish journalist Craig Horowitz wrote in New York magazine. "He’s demonstrated that it’s not necessary to sacrifice a meaningful secular life in the larger culture to be observant. This is a new model in the Jewish community, which has spent decades believing that to succeed and to fit in you had to shed your cultural and religious baggage." Left-leaning Americans of other faiths were similarly drawn to Lieberman’s candidacy. "His example of religious faith lived out unabashedly in contemporary political life is an inspiration to all," said the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal. Religious conservatives also had positive things to say. Christian news sources praised Lieberman for his fusion of piety and politics--though some expressed regret that the candidate’s religiosity didn’t manifest itself in the usual pantheon of principles: pro-life, anti-homosexual, "family values." On both sides of the political aisle, however, the conclusions were simplistic. Religious conservatives clung to a notion of "tradition" that Lieberman did not fit; religious liberals put too much weight upon "authentic" ritual observance, and made Lieberman the poster child for it. Observers on the left and the right were thinking along binary lines, championing viewpoints that clashed with the religion that was being practiced in the real world. Furthermore, religion was being propped up as a tonic for all ills. At a time when polls showed overwhelming percentages of Americans concerned about the nation’s moral health, this idea that one could balance secular life and religious observance was enormously appealing. The ironic thing was that many who were drawn to the senator’s ritual observance had no such practices in their own lives. It was almost as if they were looking for Lieberman to be "properly" religious in their stead. Once again, what ultimately prevailed was the tendency to reduce a devout Democratic Jew like Lieberman to a caricature of himself. |