One down, ? to go
So, there’s Mitt* and I’ve lost track of how many others. Anyway, bye-bye Michelle. Probably the repug (yes, I meant that) that I liked the least. One of these days a human being at the female end of the gender spectrum will have what it takes to serve as the president of the United Snakes. Alas, not this time around.
As an independent voter, I can’t say I am crazy about any of the repugs. But that is largely because the Grand Old Party has moved waaaaayyyy to the right of me. As a pro-choice human being at the female end of the gender spectrum, I could babble incoherently for the next week about the social issues involved. But I won’t, at least not tonight. I am pretty sure that not all of my five readers agree with me and that doesn’t mean they are bad people. It just means we don’t agree.
What is bugging me more than ever (and it’s been bugging me for a long time) is why it seems to be so important to proclaim your faith in God and participate as a member of an organized [Christian] religion to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. In the first place, I think there are plenty of folks of other religions (or no religion) who might qualify. Islam (for example) may be the religion “everyone” in the western world hates these days but not every Islamic person is Osama bin Laden.
I suppose the best description of me when it comes to religion is Christian. I grew up going to Sunday School (and sometimes church if I was forced to (I spent my time looking at the patterns in the carpet mostly)) at the Central United Methodist Church in Sault Ste. Siberia. I am a confirmed member of that church. And yet one of my lots in life has been large Catholic families. The families I grew up with on Fin Family Moominbeach prepared me pretty well for marrying into a beloved large Catholic family. The GG and I have never been involved in any religion in our adult lives and our kids are un-baptized heathens or whatever. But they’ve turned out to be very wonderful, compassionate people who care about others. I think that’s what religion is all about. Or do I have it wrong?
The thing is, I don’t know that belonging to any particular religion gives a person an automatic ticket to morality. To me, it’s more than just reciting bible books and verses and listening to long boring sermons and whatnot. It is living your life in a way where you try to take care of your own responsibilities and, when you have a little bit more than some others, you help them if you can. There are hypocrites not to mention sexual offenders in our churches just as there are everywhere else. Why does belonging to a church make someone presidential material?
* If I were still a kid, I would prob’ly vote for Mitt. Why? My grandparents were acquainted with his father, Michigan governor George Romney. And my uncle Austin also, because he was the director of the Michigan DNR. But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s go-o-o-one.
January 4th, 2012 at 7:55 pm
Re religion in politics- The politics of religion are way over stated and oversimplified. People of faith are way more complex in how they behave then the broad brush categories they are lumped into by the media. That was proven in Iowa.
January 4th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Hillary, 2016! – You know, you want it.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
I agree with you about the litmus test for Christianity in the presidential elections. Look at the smear campaign the other side tried to do on Obama; there are STILL lots of people who believe he’s a Muslim. He’s not, but what would it matter if he were?
January 5th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Well, I agree that the media overstates the politics of religion. So why are we getting basically the same ultra-conservative messages on social issues from all of these candidates?
January 5th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
kayak woman asks “why are we getting basically the same ultra-conservative messages on social issues from all of these candidates”
Excellent question! also, why is daytime talk radio geared to the ultra-conservative message too? and why does Fox News have so many more viewers than other cable news outlets? I’m paranoid enough to suggest that money lies somewhere in the answer, but I’m not nearly well-informed enough to know if I’m right.
another quote, this time from the post: “our kids are un-baptized heathens or whatever. But they’ve turned out to be very wonderful, compassionate people who care about others. I think that’s what religion is all about. Or do I have it wrong?”
Totally agree and identify with this. My heathen young-adult children are A-OK too.
January 7th, 2012 at 3:31 am
I love this post. It bothers me in a big way about the religious emphasis in politics, which I think is mostly a bunch of insincere hooey for the most part (used to manipulate their base), and to the extreme spectrum, I think it’s scary “American Taliban” stuff. Some of them would like America to be just as Christian-extreme as some of the middle-east countries are Islam-extreme. Which is why it’s so important that religion has NO PLACE in politics.