Religion not what matters

As Chris Saxman makes way for the pasture, Tracy Pyles demonstrates anew a proclivity, like that of James Ellroy, the noir novelist famous for venturing to places others dare not go. An Augusta County supervisor known for political isolationism, Pyles has gone into the subject of a candidate’s Buddhism, remarkable for many things, not least that the candidate happens to be a fellow Democrat.

So now Erik Curren faces new foes, having been ridded of a formidable one in Saxman, a popular four-term Republican incumbent who appeared on track for another victory in the state House’s 20th District until announcing Friday that he had quit the race. That move threw open the doors for Curren, until Pyles began pushing them closed, pointing to Curren’s religion as out of step with a staunchly conservative – and largely Christian – local electorate. Curren himself steps forward as another foe.

His campaign Web site makes a singular and apparently incomplete reference to his religion: “Erik attends Crozet United Methodist Church with his fiancée Lindsay Howerton ... .” Nowhere does the site mention Buddhism. Curren says he practices both that faith and Christianity and that the seeming omission was unintentional. Some people accuse Curren of being disingenuous.

To some extent, both assertions might be true. Curren does not shrink from questions about his practicing Buddhism. But the Web site omission is at least slightly curious. It’s hard to ignore what Pyles suggests, that Curren’s Buddhist faith will cost him votes. It’s also hard to ignore the possibility that the candidate recognizes this and is attempting to straddle lines.

Sensible folk will recognize immediately the larger question with regard to the decision to be made in November. Who is best qualified to represent the district in the state House of Delegates? Leftists especially contend religion has no bearing on the answer. This dismisses the importance and relevance of faith in molding the character of its adherents. President George Washington in his farewell address, despaired over the prospect of religion’s influence vanishing from public life, an event that he anticipated would result in morality disappearing, too, and with it an essential plank in America’s emerging greatness. The evidence supports him.

There are dangers, though, in extending consideration of religion too far. Republicans’ best hope for regaining the White House in 2012 might rest with Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a practicing Mormon. His demonstrable skills in combating economic woes would be useful now.

For our part, the trouble with Curren as a candidate in the 20th District is that he lacks what Saxman provided, a strong business background and the fiscal conservatism needed to rein in state spending and right the economy. Curren’s specialties are in communications and nonprofit operations and his ideas run sharply along partisan lines. Fittingly, on his Web site he groups jobs as an issue with energy, pointing to such initiatives as weatherizing homes and “tapping the sun [and] the wind.” The economic problems are bigger than this.

Voters’ attentions are far more likely to be affixed to these issues than that of Curren’s religion. It would have been better had his passing reference to faith been more complete. But neither this apparent failing nor Curren’s religious syncretism strike us as particularly relevant. The 20th District needs a representative capable of aiding Virginia’s return to fiscal health and prosperity. Buddhist or not, Curren has not yet shown us that he fits the job description. And that matters.