Politics and Religion

I’ve watched, at times fascinated and at other times sickened, as the various segments of our American politicians and society debate religion, its place in our great country, and in our laws and behavior.

The Declaration of Independence, which took our country away from the dominion of Great Briton, does state: . . . that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. . .

Note that it states, all men are created equal. It does not state that only those of a certain religious belief have these rights, more rights than others. Nor does it say you must have a belief in any one particular, if any, Creator.

It states that all men are created equal. We can argue the statement about “all men,” but at this point, I believe the reference was to all people. Therefore, it includes women as well as men (historical introspection is mine).

The Constitution of the United States of America does not define any religious belief, or any set rules of religious behavior, or belief.

In fact, the 1^st amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America (part of the Bill of Rights) states: 
      "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof; abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Well, hello freedom! This gives each of us the right to believe what we want about the existence of a Creator, or not. It gives us the freedom to worship or not as we desire. It removes from the discussion the right or privilege to say, the United States was founded as a Christian nation. It does give us the right to practice our religions, or not; to believe or not as we wish, to attend church or not as we wish; however, and this is a BIG however, it does not give us the right to force our beliefs on others, or to use that belief to divide us. We are bigger that that as a nation, as a people. 

Politics in the United States has become a dirty, nasty business. To entice votes, politicians are trying hard to divide and conquer the voters. They are trying, and to a large point succeeding, to divide us upon religious grounds. The rhetoric has become evil, nasty, even putrefying. It is no wonder that the majority of Americans turn away from the debate.  

The American people deserve, and should demand, better. We need to know, politicians, what you plan to do to improve our economy, our health care, our standard of life. We don’t care about where or how often you worship. My belief, or non-belief, in a Creator is “none of your damn business,” as Grandmother would have said. 

Politicians, let’s take your religious belief out of the discussion, for this moment. Do not tell me what your “God” wants us to do. Tell me what you are going to do. Are you going to support health care for all people; are you going to say those who are outside of your comfort zone they have no right in their decision; are you going to allow women to decide how and when they decide to bring new life into the world, or would you prefer to tell them what they have to do? Will you feed the hungry children, provide them education, will you provide daytime child care so mom and dad can earn a living, or would you prefer they end up on welfare for the rest of their lives? Are you going to allow me to make my own end-of-life decisions? Are you willing to allow medical marijuana to ease my discomfort from chemo? Or would you prefer I suffer when the pain can be relieved? Are you going to pay the bills, or would you prefer my family goes hungry?

Or, let’s put your “God” back into the discussion, for the moment. What would He say, what would He do? Would He heal the sick, feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted? Would He say, “Provide for them, and their families?” Would He be there, or would He say, “Well, too bad for you?”

Perhaps more importantly, it is time for the American voters to wake up, to say, Hello! We need our governing bodies to work for us, for the greater good of America. It is time for us to no longer accept the R or the D in the voting booth. It is time for us to look the politicians in the eye and ask, what are you going to do for us, for our nation? The time is now to ask for answers. It is time for us to look beyond their business connections, beyond their religious affiliations, read beyond the sound bites, to look at what they have done, to ask them what they are willing to do for us as a country.

It is time to ask our politicians what they are going to do for greater good of America. 

As always, your comments are welcome! Thanks for reading. 

RMH

The Donald

I’ve been quite for far too long, but now I feel the need to speak out. Donald Trump, the obvious, or oblivious, leader of the Republican candidates, has now said that all Muslims in America should be put in a data-base, and forced to carry an ID card that identifies them as a Muslim. Why? Because Muslims, in the main, are members of the Islamic religion, and Islamic terrorists are causing mayhem and havoc around the world.

So “The Donald” wants to stigmatize an entire population because of the crimes of a few.  Would he be in favor of making all Catholics register in a data base and carry ID cards as a result of a few priests being pedophiles? The Catholic Church does not teach people to become pedophiles, and Islam does not teach people to become terrorists. Yes, I know, there are a few leaders in the Islamic religion who preach hate against infidels, but does that make every member of the faith a terrorist? The Wellsboro Baptist church teaches hate against “gays”, does that make every Baptist a gay-hater?

I don’t think so. And if I am making you uncomfortable with these comparisons, so be it. If you are uncomfortable with this, you need to press re-set and think again.

Wake up, America! There is not, should not, and cannot be a litmus test of religion to be in America. Yes, we are, like the rest of the world, trying to handle the refugee crisis from the Syrian civil war. These refugees are, in the main, women and children whose husbands and fathers have been killed in the name of religion. Is this the time we turn our back on them? Is this what America is known for?

Yes, this situation makes us all uncomfortable. How do we know which child or mother is in fact a terrorist? I don’t have the answer, and I won’t pretend to.   

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As all of you know, I am not a fan of Representative Jason Chaffetz, (R-Utah) but he put it well:

“As an American, that’s nuts,” said Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and who is so far neutral in the GOP presidential race. “The whole foundation of our nation was to allow for religious liberties and I have no interest in shutting down churches. That’s ridiculous. . . if there are individuals engaged in nefarious activities, then go arrest them. I don’t care of (sic) they’re Mormons, Muslims or Jews. But places of worship should be encouraged.” (Salt Lake Tribune, 11/20/2015)

He is correct; go arrest the individual, but don’t use a broad brush and paint an entire group as evil. This is Karl Rove at his worst, this is divide and conquer politics at it’s worst.

Mr. Trump, your comments are not helping America. Go back to your reality show, go back to your casinos. Get out of politics, and stop trying to destroy America.  

Your thoughts and comments are welcome, as always. 

RMH