Should Faith Matter When Electing Politicians?

Recommend (4) Comments (17)

If you had asked me this question 8 years ago I would have emphatically said “NO” .  I’d quote the Constitution that states that no religious test shall be imposed on any public official, and I’d slide in an attack on the anti-atheist prejudices that link morality to religion by quoting statistics on the lack of Atheists in prison and our lowest-of-all divorce rates.

However, recent politicians have changed my mind, and I now believe that faith needs to be addressed head-on. 

President Bush is not just a religious man, he’s a true believer who thinks God wanted him to be president, and that has given him the most closed-to-the-public administration in years. His faith in an uber-power has brought us brazenly into war (against the UN’s demands) and emptied our surplus by funneling billions of dollars into illegal religion schemes without oversight under the guise of “Faith Based Initiatives”. There is no doubt that President Bush’s dedication to his god (above his dedication to his country) has hurt this country in terrible long-lasting ways (stem cell research, sex ed, the Supreme Court’s tilt). President Bush’s religion diminished our freedom and our wallets, and we now need to face the fact that religion can and will get in the way of good government.

Bush isn’t alone. Mitt Romney ran for President. As a Mormon, Mr. Romney wears underwear that he literally thinks has magic powers to protect him from evil. This, quite simply, is stupid. And don’t forget James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, who told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."