As an Agnostic or Atheist and a concerned citizen, the insertion of religion into American politics is not only unconstitutional but offensive. This year for the 2008 presidential election, it has been especially mind boggling. With the fundamentalist and in my opinion, extreme, Christian Right voting block up for grabs, the kiss ass pandering by the candidates is nauseating. When the it was realized how much control and brain washing the Right’s ideology and leadership had over its followers, the candidates all crawled on hands and knees hoping for an endorsement.
I know that there have always been powerful groups with a lot of voting power that candidates have courted the Teamsters, teachers unions, Hollywood, blacks, women and Hispanics. Politicians have always needed these groups and along with their votes, their cold hard cash. But when the Bush’s tapped into the Christian and specifically the Evangelical “pot of gold”, the race was on to see who could “brown nose” the best.
I have always voted Republican. I believe in less government, lower taxes, fewer social programs, and a strong military. I do not want a government all Democratic or Republican because there needs to be checks and balances on both sides. I have not gone democratic because frankly, that means more of the money I earn going to pay for more and more social programs. There are many good ones but many people ride these forever refusing to get off their ass and I don’t want to fund them. I don’t mind some but I don’t want a bunch of idiots making all of the decisions about my money. Unfortunately, the Republicans too have strayed so far from the notion of less government and have become the kings of pork. They have actually weakened our military with poor decisions and planning. While the Left has catered to weirdo’s and thugs the Right has catered to weirdo’s and televangelists. My party has become less defined by sanity and more defined on how much it sucks up and adheres to the Christian Right’s values and agenda. There are many of us out there who love America but do not want to see it become a nation of socialists or a theocracy. We wonder how far down LaLa Lane we will be forced to travel.
I grew up Mormon and like most Mormons, and I suspect most “Christians”, I didn’t really study or care to know much about what I believed. I went to church and belonged to a community who “believed” together. Until the Right started pointing a finger at Mormons, I considered myself to be a Christian and I believed in Jesus at the time, so didn’t someone who believed in Jesus deserve to be called a Christian? I then learned that to the Evangelicals, only people who believe the way THEY do about Jesus are Christians. I have since studied things out and based on evidence and not feelings have come to the conclusion, like other free thinkers, that it is all, Christian and non-Christian…..bunk.
Now, lest we forget, ALL “Christians” (even Mormons) feel that THEY are the only ones who believe correctly in Jesus and the rest of the legends in the Bible. They ALL know this not from any evidence or facts but from a warm fuzzy feeling they get called faith (or delusion, you choose). They also have had these beliefs pounded into them for years from the mentally challenged leaders who have been brain washing them since childhood.
During the presidential primary of this current election starting in 2007, Mitt Romney a Mormon, who seems to have as many presidential qualities as the other candidates (and looks better than most) had the task of trying to prove how “Christian” he was. Keep in mind that his religion NO MATTER WHAT HE BELIEVES should have NOTHING to do with his qualifications for president.Unfortunately, he spent more time trying to convince the Right that he was “like them” (delusional), than by talking about issues that really mattered to the presidency.
Huckabee of the other hand was really odd and scary. He is a politician who is actually a minister. He not only wanted the endorsement of the Right, he wanted to change the constitution to reflect more Biblical principles, such as stoning, genocide, slavery, racism, sexism, murder, incest, and many other “principles” most free thinkers and intelligent individuals find abhorrent and barbaric. At one point and I quote, he stated, “Some of my opponents do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards,” Wow, if that doesn’t violate the separation of church and state I don’t know what does.
Let me mention quickly that the Bible, which he refers to as “the word of the living God” is a collection of writings from over 2,000 years ago by backward,sometimes mad, certainly ignorant, delusional and often unknown, authors. These were a people with little to NO knowledge of human rights, medicine, science, biology, the universe, or the world around them. Their attempts at the time, to explain and describe the meaning of life including its beginning and end, are crude, sad and even laughable. While they did often weave certain “historical” themes and events into their ramblings, their words were tainted by their own struggles, knowledge and bias. Most Christians have never really read all of or studied the Bible. Except for a few well known, cherry picked chapters and verses, they are not aware of the rest of it or its origins. To have a presidential candidate actually made this statement and not have more people stunned in horror, is what amazes me.
Huckabee and Romney did not make it all the way to be the nominee. But both current candidates McCain and Obama did. While they are not as overtly religious and delusional as Huckabee, they are now doing their best to suck up to the Christian Right.
The Saddleback debacle just reinforced in my mind, how close we may as a nation be to actually becoming a theocracy. Pastor Rick Warren is a nice guy. He is, by religious whacko standards, more “normal” than some of the other past and present leaders. But, is it really appropriate for ANY church or religion to be courted by out presidential candidates? Is a church, any church an appropriate forum for a political debate? Are we going to go next to a mosque, synagogue, Masonic Temple, Mormon stake center, or Southern backwoods church with rattle snake handlers? When do the candidates start courting the Aryan Nation and having a debate in Idaho? Or how about trying to get the counter culture vote and having a political forum at The Burning Man festival? What about a town hall meeting at a Wiccan coven?
Questions asked like whether evil exists and if it does “should we ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it, or defeat it?” Seem so bizarre and idiotic I was amazed the candidates could answer with a straight face. First, what is evil? Evil to one culture or religion may not be evil to another. I love a good pork chop and if I am evil (according to some religions) and going to hell for eating them, so be it. Hell, if we are going to defeat evil, let’s start with religion which has caused more evil, death, destruction, and human rights violations than any government or institution ever could.
As an non-believer, free thinker, individual, mom, wife, and concerned citizen, how do I feel about the politics and election so far? I wish there was less sucking up to special interests which in my opinion, include the Christian Right. I wish Obama and McCain were not so eager to kiss the ass of religious leaders and leave their beliefs out of the election. I wish more of us who were not believers had a voice but frankly, most of us know we could lose our jobs, families, and friends if we stood out and stated our beliefs, or lack of them. Religion and politics don’t mix and should NOT mix and if they ever do completely, we will go back to the dark ages where people were governed by the church and punished for being individuals and thinking for themselves. If that happens, God help us (no pun intended) on second thought, perhaps we had better help ourselves by voting for rational candidates rather than those who believe in fairy tales….or pretend they do for the votes.
