Bringing God into the Debate

I read this comment in a summary in The Week magazine of an article written by Joseph Loconte of the New York Times. The article was written in response to increasing instances of well placed Democrates (like Nancy Pelosi) using religious rhetoric to advance their policy goals in an attempt to mimick Republican success in that area. I think that Loconte's point is a good one and demonstrates how I've increasingly come to feel about imposing 'God' on secular policy debates.

"In a secular democracy such as ours, the pursuit of the 'common good' requires respect for people's differences, considerable compromise, and appeals to reason. Framing debates in religious terms almost invariably results in extreme positions: If God is a Democrat, or a Republican, then the other party is almost necessarily the surrogate of Satan, and every disagreement becomes a holy war." -The Week, Jan 13th 2006.