2008 Presidential Religious Tests
With large complex issue facing the next President and on top, the Iraq quagmire, it is incomprehensible why anyone would waste TV debate time to ask the candidates whether they had sinned or how their faith had helped them. Yet this week we heard Hillary, John and Barack quizzed on that very subject.
It is of course ok for any or all candidates to practice a religious faith providing they remember and respect our non-sectarian form of government. The US is built upon a clear separation of church and state and if we need a reminder why that is good, we need only look at Israel and all the Islamic theocracies.
To under score this point, please remember that George Bush made a big deal of telling every interviewer that he read the Bible each day (as if that would make him a gentler and kinder President). He also told us that he consulted “a higher authority” when debating in his mind whether to launch an invasion of Iraq. Apparently God told George that it was ok to invade another land pre-emptively and inflict great damage and destruction on the innocent people living there. God must have told George that it was not necessary to have any proof and if he needed to lie about why he went to war, that would be ok with God. (George never said that God told him he did not like the Iraqis but maybe that is what he said). God apparently went on and said that these people George was fighting could be viewed as less than human and that enhanced interogation methods would also be ok, and while he was at it, there was no need to heed the Geneva Convention or anything that looked like due process. George is a wonderful example of why religion should play no part in the Presidential debate and election.
While John, Barack and Hillary all did a little pandering with answering the faith question, John was clearly the biggest panderer and Hillary was the least. She said that her Methodist background taught her to be on guard for those who wore their religion on their sleeves. And so should we all.
This entry was posted on June 6, 2007 at 7:14 pm and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Religion. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
June 8, 2007 at 7:50 am
[...] Regaining the Center: 2008 Presidential Religious Tests [...]
June 11, 2007 at 3:10 am
There are religious fanatics in the United States who want to replace the Bill of Rights with their version of Sharia law: they want to enforce all the laws of the Old Testament instead of the current legal system. If you find this hard to believe, look up “Christian Reconstuctionism” and “Dominionism” in Wikipedia. Or read the just-released “Understanding the intelligent design creationist movement: Its true nature and goals,” available at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/Forrest_Paper.pdf.
Supporters of intelligent design creationism tell the public it is not religion, but among themselves they speak plainly (or use well-understood code phrases) about the religious goals of intelligent design. Presidential candidates, particularly Republicans, understand these code phrases, and avoid speaking in support of science in general and specifically evolution at their great peril. They are at the mercy of the power-base of the religious right, the uninformed voters who don’t understand science, and actually don’t understand much about any religion other than their own. And they don’t understand the very good historical reasons for separation of church and state.
Please read Dr. Forrest’s position paper – and then be afraid, be very afraid for America.