Religion in Politics

In the debate over the role of religion in politics, it is useful to remember that the founding fathers (and presumably mothers too) of this country were deists. They believed in God, but not necessarily religion. Religion as a force to be reckoned with in politics is particularly acute this election season, mostly due to a life-and-death struggle we productive and live-and-let-live people find ourselves in with the religion of Islam.

Make no mistake: we cannot stick our heads in the sand this time and wait for the problem to go away. We can’t make nice with the zealots who want to destroy our way of life and not expect them to stab us in the back.

That said, I agree with Laura that our leaders should not be the kind of people who genuflect in front of an altar (whichever one it may be) before making decisions. They – and especially the person, regardless of gender or race – must ALREADY HAVE a strong moral compass that helps them to BE decisive. I agree with Laura that this moral compass does not have to be tied to an organized religion.

Personally, I am suspicious of ALL organized religions, because they prey on people’s insecurities and seek to control them. Religion, as politics, is really all about POWER AND CONTROL. I do believe in God, but I don’t believe I find Him in a church or on a carpet with hundreds of other people chanting anything. When I want to find God, I go to nature – forests, oceans, deserts – and places where there is no sound, or only the sounds of nature. There I feel the insignificance of my own life, and believe it or not, take comfort in that. It puts things in perspective for me.

Here is my beef with the current journalistic approach toward politics. 1) It is clearly biased, one way or ‘tother. 2) We dwell WAY too much on people’s foibles, and not enough on their principals. 3) And the most important thing of all to my way of thinking: WE NEED TO KNOW WHO THE PEOPLE ARE THAT THE CANDIDATES TURN TO FOR ADVICE AND COUNSEL. Presidents do not make decisions in a vacuum. They get to choose their advisors and those people have an enormous impact on decision-making. I have not heard the mainstream media discussing this at all, though it will be a very important factor in my choice for President, otherwise known as Leader of the Free World, the most powerful position on the planet. This is a momentous decision, and I don’t wish to make it in a vacuum.

Can the media please help us out and quit worrying about whether Hillary was in a firefight in Bosnia, Obama’s religion is really Islam, and John McCain ever had an affair with a lobbyist? Did any of them inhale? Who gives a shit! Didn’t we all, at this age, in the times we grew up? And didn’t we get over it and become adults capable of leadership in some cases, or at least good citizens?

Tell the American People who the advisors are, and then we’ll get somewhere.

Politics and Faith

Carol Hunter long ago recognized that I was outside the mainstream: I hated the summer Olympics and preferred the Winter Games. I was bored to tears by America's sport (baseball) and March Madness mean't nothing more than a chance to catch up on old movies. So, it's not surprising that I am probably out of touch now.

Nonetheless, I really am perplexed by the fact that the two leading candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination are actually having a "compassion forum". I can understand why evangelical groups press their values and look at the candidates through a particular set of glasses - just as unions, teachers and every other special interest group does. But for a CNN sponsored debate to focus on the faith and moral values of the candidates and to imply that someone who is not actively religious does not have a moral center is pure unadulterated crap.

Most people - whether they go to church on sunday or not - have some sort of moral compass that we consult (probably without realizing it) in our decision making. Yet, do we really want to so blur the lines of church and state that we need a president who must fall on his/her knees and consult the Bible before making a critical decision? Should public money fund relgious projects and organizations? And what if the "good book" that I heard one evangelical today say that the president must consult before making a decision is the Koran? Remember when Rep. Keith Ellison, newly elected to Congress in November 2006 caused a monumental flap when he declared his intention to use the Koran to take his oath of office?

I think it's time we put things in their place and recognized that the attributes we need in a president may not always mesh with the dictates from the pulpit. We should not expect pastors to be able to run countries (or even businesses, for that matter), nor should we expect politicians to be pastoral.

Many people will say that this is a biased opinion because I am not actively relgious, so I don't understand what 99% of the population will. So I found it interesting that agnostics, atheists and non-religious people make up 16% of the world population. The third largest group behind Christians (33%) and Islamics (21%). In the US, according to a study conducted in 2001 by City University of New York Graduate School and based on 113,000 interviews, 76% of the US population self-identifies as Christian. The second largest? 13.2% who self identify as agnostic/atheist/non-religious. Falling far behind that group are 1.3% Jewish and .5% Islamic.

And of the 76% of the country who call themselves Christian, there are a lot of criminals, liars, cheats, adulterers, theives, bullies, bigots and brats who I would not want to be president of the chamber of commerce, much less the United States, simply because they put on a suit and march the family to church each Sunday to appropriately genuflect - both to God and the electorate!

So I'm curious what ya'll think. Is it just me or is something wrong here?

Cool Chick endorsements for president

The ink is dry on the Des Moines Register endorsements for president, written by our friend and fellow CC, Carol Hunter. She (they) endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain. If you want to read the endorsments you can get to them through this link. So I'm curious of the other CCs agree with Carol's picks (keeping in mind, of course, that she is only one voice on the Register's editorial board - so they aren't really her picks).

Please add comments about your thoughts. I myself - yes, a democrat - am still undecided.