Reply to Religion in politics

A reader wrote:

“Well, there are unwritten laws for being president. Believe or not it is even written in some school textbooks, some of those rules. All presidents have been Christian, All have been Men, All have been White, and All have been Married. Recently it looks like we have the opportunity to at least change one rule. The textbooks may need to be updated, Obama may be the one rewriting a rule AS THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT. Despite the fact that Clinton was honored as the first black president at the Caucus Dinner. As far as religion goes in America everyone does have freedom of religion but America is ran based off of Christian views. I don’t think the religion is pushed upon Americans, However I don’t know anyone that claims another religion in politics. IT IS WHAT IT IS…………”  

The USA Constitution

 

 

First let me state that the Constitution of the U.S.A. was intentionally written as a secular (non-religious) document from its inception to guide our nation, and this was intentionally done after many debates amongst the founding fathers of these united states we call America.  Luckily for us Thomas Jefferson’s team won that battle, but the  religious right is still trying to wage war on these fronts.  All of this even after the words for our Constitution was agreed upon and inked on parchment, the war for a Christian state still wages on for the religious right.  Thomas Jefferson’s version of America (as seen in the U.S. Constitution) is very different from the version that the religious extremist are attempting to create.

Nowadays the Christian right uses lobbyists because they have amassed enough of a following to affect the out come of elections (or at least to challenge what the candidates claim they believe in). So some candidates feel they have to pander to this groups wants, thus we have these politicians who feel they have to be the “all-you-can-be” candidate to make their way into the seats of political offices. Now every four years we have this mad rush of people trying to become super politicians, and they try to appear to have solutions to every problem (or at least the problems that could possibly have an affect on who votes for them).

This attention given to special interest groups, lobbyist and the likes seems to add to the illusion that these matters are as important to American society as other major issues like the economy, global warming, energy, international affairs, or even racism, and causes some people to vote for the lesser qualified guy (GW Bush) rather than the more qualified (A. Gore) because one appears to have more “faith in god” than the other.  This gives these religious issues the appearance of merit while our time is wasted in these matters, and we loose ground on more important things like stem cell research matters.

Crazy huh?  Some candidates have really bad views on policies like these, but appear to be faithful church goers.  People will actually vote for some one in the U.S. if they appear to go to church, and that’s enough to at least turn heads their way.  They could care less about the issues that really matter, and wonder why gas is a negative factor in our lives these days.  American Christian Extremist have waged a full out assault the very idea’s that Thomas Jefferson struggled for in the form of a type of some type of religious P.R. (public relations) campaign, and now they have campaigns to make Mr. Jefferson appear more Christian in his views though it has clearly been documented that he was somewhat of a materialist (e.g. check out the Thomas Jefferson Bible).

Thus this idea of TRUE freedom of religion has been lost to modern day intentional mistranslations of history, and they have been successful at making people think that these ideas are the norm.  But nowadays these ideas could not be further from the norm, and they mislead people partial due to TV sound bite, too much TV coverage, and even the written (typed) word, legislation, TV commercials, TV shows/networks and radio shows.  All in an attempt to create this idea that Christianity is the “natural/more reasonable choice”, and all other schools of thought are mere options.

I think SOME Christians in this country feel a since of superiority in their position here, and if you were to ask another Atheist, Muslim or Jew how they feel at times they will tell you its not freedom of religion they feel; it’s TOLERANCE.  Proof of the TOLERANCE of religion in this country is all around us, and when Christian America thought that Mr. Obama was Muslim it reared its ugly head again.  And there is a history of this in American politics, but it goes beyond the office of president.  This idea of only having a Christian president in a country that is supposed to be free for all religions is a reflection of its people as a whole, and is in direct opposition to the very tenants written by Mr. Thomas Jefferson in our constitution.

The idea of the separation of church and state was done so that we could not develop a national or state religion, so the problem with an “unspoken rule/law” in American politics regarding all candidates being Christian is that it an admission to all that I wrote!  When you are so heavily saturated with one religion throughout your life you’re in fact becoming indoctrinated rather you like it or not.  The emphasis placed on Christianity here makes it even more evident when it’s so infused into the idea of running this country.  It’s as if someone else could not do a better job than George W. Bush because they are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or even Atheist, and this could mean that we are passing on someone more qualified to do the job because of their religion.

To drive my point home lets read the words of America’s forfathers:

In his autobiography (referring to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom) Mr. Jefferson stated: “Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it would read ‘A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;’ the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.” [Thomas Jefferson – Referring to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom] 

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents. [James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788]But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer [Jesus] of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State. – [homas Jefferson, in a letter to Samuel Kercheval, 1810]

History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. – [Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Baron von Humboldt, 1813] And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together. – James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly-marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity. – Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791-1792 

As you can see, from reading the above quotes, America was in a very different place back then, and our Constitution tries to keep us aligned with reason.  But in these trying times people are again trying to create what America’s forefathers’ set to avoid.