The Lantern, January 4, 2006 By Dan Magestro "What does God expect of us?" Jim Petro, Republican candidate for Ohio governor, asks at the beginning of a disturbing television ad that has been running since early December. As the commercial progresses, it's not clear whether Ohio's current attorney general is running for governor or for pope. Either way, bring on the black smoke: we're in an election year, and it promises to be quite a crusade.
Following an embarrassing year for the sitting governor and coin collectors alike, 2006 couldn't have come soon enough. But while I'm as ecstatic as the next Ohioan about cleansing the state's highest elected office, I didn't imagine it might be cleansed with holy water.
Let me walk you through Petro's commercial, entitled "From the Heart" and also streaming on his website at jimpetro.com. The ad opens with a pensive Petro posing the theological question I mentioned. Petro answers on behalf of God, "To do justice, to love kindness." We're not taught exactly what it means to "love kindness," but we get the point.
The camera floats above a certificate of Christian baptism as Petro talks about his pro-life stance and 33-year marriage. "We believe that we have to do all that we can to advocate the protection of all life," he says. The camera then hovers gracefully over a Bible (yes, a Bible) resting on a table next to a wedding ring, while Petro discusses the sacred bond of marriage between a man and a woman.
Petro closes with this shocker: "Our worship and our faith gives me the opportunity to make decisions that are more effective for people." Side-stepping his subject-verb mismatch, is the state's chief law officer and legal counsel stressing how he brings his faith into his job? When faced with a legal course of action, does Petro refer to the Bible rather than the law? It seems so, and in fact both Petro's apparent faith-based approach to legal matters and the ad itself might be unconstitutional.
In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court established three criteria for determining whether a government action violates the First Amendment's separation of church and state: the action must have a non-religious purpose, its primary purpose must not be to inhibit or to advance religion and there must be no excessive entanglement with religion. Petro's ad fails the test on every count, and his self-described approach to decision making violates the third step.
Of course, a campaign ad is not the sort of government action that our nation's highest court had in mind. But the specific way that Petro apparently uses his religious beliefs in his current elected position is. The fact that Ohio publicly finances political parties (via the check box on our state income tax forms and through tax deductions for campaign contributions) only exacerbates the crime.
Please believe it when I say this isn't about Petro's being a Christian. When the OSU quarterback humbly praises God for his athletic talents, I respect and admire his personal faith. When the attorney general of our state calls on his Christian faith for making decisions on behalf of all Ohioans, I'm appalled.
I'm not ignorant of the strong role that religion plays in the lives of many Ohioans, and I'm aware of the influence of one's religious values on one's vote. I also admit that Petro's religion is relevant for establishing the character and credibility he seeks. But anyone willing to pimp his sacred scriptures in a campaign commercial deserves nothing less than a boot-kicking from elected office. Jim Petro for governor? Given his overt exploitation of his religion and his potentially unconstitutional behavior as attorney general, I sure hope not.
Dan Magestro is a postdoctoral research associate in the physics department. He can be reached at magestro.1@osu.edu. |
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