ABC columnist questions role of religion in presidential race
It’s not news that religion and politics have gotten mixed up with each other in the USA. It is remarkable, however, for someone to use his soapbox at a US mass-media website to question the advisability of mixing the two.
Commentator John Allen Paulos, an author and professor of mathematics at Temple University, imagines a panel pinning the candidates down on their views of God, religious tolerance, predestination, evolution and several other related topics. In real life, no one would ask these questions, and if they did, the candidates would dodge giving honest answers. Even Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who wear their religions on their sleeves, are political enough to avoid saying too much in the middle of a tight race.
Read Paulos’ column, then check the comments. They range from the sympathetic to the outraged. Some folks are so touchy about religion that they apparently have missed his message.
Once upon a time, I would have agreed with Paulos wholeheartedly. Now I’m not so sure. We had a president not too long ago who sought advice from the stars (aka astrology) and one now who apparently believes his ascendancy to the White House was a gift from God. The religious right hijacked the Republican Party two decades ago and has quite effectively placed Christian extremists in several national offices, not the least of which is the presidency. (Former Secretary of the Interior James Watt believed so completely in the Second Coming that he saw no compelling reason to conserve our natural forests for later generations, for example.)
I would want to know a candidate’s religious views before he or she swears or affirms he or she will uphold the Constitution of the United States, not after. A religious extremist might later assume that upholding his or her chosen religion trumps the Constitution, leading to who knows what national tragedy.
I yearn for the days when religion stayed out of politics, when a president’s church attendance was not assigned any special National Significance and we did not need to worry about doctrinaire beliefs shaping national policy. Those days, I am afraid, are gone. Perhaps in another 20 years these days of religious politics will be, too.
