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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Religion and Politics

I recently read several articles in Liberty magazine regarding this issue which really got me thinking during this election year about religion and politics. First, I am a christian and in fact the church to which I belong could be described as evangelical. However, it is imperative that we as citizens realize and understand that the framers of our constitution were very concerned about the separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson stated in a letter to John Adams on January 11, 1817: "The result of our fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four words 'Be just and good' is that in which all our inquiries must end. . . My answer was 'Say nothing of my religion. It is know to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one." 

The point I am trying to make is that we should elect our politicians based on their platforms which will most help our country, not on who can "out christian" the other. There is nothing wrong supporting a candidate who professes to be a Christian. However, look closely at that individuals actual behavior and say to yourself: Do their actions jibe with their talk? In particular, one candidates actions in the GOP race certainly do not. I will leave it to you to figure it out. A hint, he isn't a Mormon and not from Texas or Pennsylvania. If you see hypocrisy regarding this fundamental issue then maybe this person is not the type of person who you can trust with other issues as well. 

Lastly, we are a county made up of a variety of faiths. Whether you agree with those beliefs or not is irrelevant. I would not want to live under Islamic law, or under any other type of theocracy. Nor did the founding father's.

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