Thursday, April 24, 2008

Politics and Religion...


Every time I read an excerpt from an interview where a candidate talks about how their faith drives them and blah, blah...it makes me want to tear my hair out. Why do we need religion in our politics? Why do most Americans need to have a strong spiritual candidate? Are they afraid that if an agnostic or atheist got elected president that they would immediately banish religion? No offense but if we had an atheist with an amazing economic plan running against John McCain, I'd vote for the atheist. Not because he's an atheist like me but because he had a plan to get us out of recession. Obama was right when he said these people cling to guns and religion. They come out of their holes every fours years and scream bloody murder over whatever the stupid "family values" issue is at the time then go away again. We have serious problems in this country.

This rant was brought on after reading an article from CNN's Political Ticker about how McCain might get baptized again. I wanted to share a few of the gimp's answers.


"Pastor Dan Yeary has a message I enjoy and appreciate," he said, adding that he and his family have "grown close to [Yeary] over the years" and that he tried to attend services at the church whenever he was home in Arizona.

"The message that Dan Yeary conveys of Christian love and redemption is one that I welcome," said McCain.

Are you listening Iraq?? John McCain believes in redemption and you have 100 years to receive it. Just accept Jesus Christ as your saviour it's that easy! Sigh.


On Wednesday, McCain cited the "the importance of Judeo-Christian values of 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'"

"There's enormous implications of that simple phrase," he added, calling it "one of the fundamental principles of leadership."


The old "do unto others..." line. Nice play sir! You have to realize that this only applies to McCain when discussing torture and permanent corporate tax cuts. How is anyone taking this asshole seriously?

3 comments:

Rob said...

That photo of McCain is awesome!

Anonymous said...

Bradda,
While I can sympathize with the frustration you feel as an atheist, it would be helpful to try to understand we "need religion in our politics" because most politicians are religionists, as are most Americans.

Religion— at least in some form— is not going away; ever. Which makes it imperative that religion be held accountable to its supposed superior moral and ethical values, and that the line between church and state be respected and kept strong.

Most Americans need to have a strong spiritual candidate" because they (religious Americans) innately long for a religious leader. There is an instinctive longing in the heart of man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the appearance on earth of spiritual personages. Our world has been largely deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers,( a long story) and therefore do we constantly and unconsciously seek to make good this loss by transferring those longings to our human leaders. That's at least one reason why Obama was immediately labeled a "messiah" candidate by both sides of the political spectrum.

Even a brilliant atheist politician with a great economic plan would have tough sledding against a mediocre religionist politician, because people innately want our leaders to reflect their own values, and chief among those is their belief in a Supreme Being.

McCain is a pandering pawn of the neocon right, and a dangerously stupid one at that. But I think you know the answer to your own question, "How is anyone taking this asshole seriously?" is the name of your blog: Illiterate Electorate.

But don't give up hope! If we can get a fair election, we'll have a Democrat for president, buried up to his neck in the shit quagmire left by the Republicans. It's we Americans who must dig him out.

Bradda said...

Michael,
Well said. I wasn't trying to come off as an anti-religious atheist and I apologize if that's the way it seemed. I understand a great majority of America believes in a higher power and that is their right.
I was trying to get the point across that our candidates should only have to say what denomination they are and maybe what church they attend. Anything else becomes a sticky slope eroding separation of church and state.
I won't claim to be very well read on religion as I personally don't see the draw. It just seems to me that the conservative Christian right has slowly engulfed our government in all branches and the evangelicals scare the crap out of me. If they are going to have such an important role to play in our policies then they should be taxed like any of political bloc. Maybe I'm just naive on religion.
I do tend to ask a lot of rhetorical questions in my posts your right. It helps to keep me sane.