Enough with the Jesus Test

There is a good editorial in the Washington Post that looks at just how wrong it is to have political candidates appear at "debates" and "town hall meetings" sponsored and/or hosted by religious denominations and churches. The recent event at Saddleback Church is a case in point. Under the U. S. Constitution there is NO established religion. So why are McCain and Obama even setting foot inside a forum like Saddleback Church? The rise of the political involvement of the Christian Right and the fact that politicians feel that they have to grovel to the Christo-fascists is an insidious poison that is doing great damage to our political system. These people truly are a Christian Taliban that must be defeated and deprived of power and influence if the Founding Father's ideal of religious freedom is to continue to flourish. Continually the self-absorbed, intolerant - if not out right hate-filled - elements of the Christian Right are seeking to undermine the Constitution. Here are some column highlights:
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At the risk of heresy, let it be said that setting up the two presidential candidates for religious interrogation by an evangelical minister -- no matter how beloved -- is supremely wrong. It is also un-American. . . . . The winner, of course, was Warren, who has managed to position himself as political arbiter in a nation founded on the separation of church and state. The loser was America.

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This is about higher principles that are compromised every time we pretend we're not applying a religious test when we're really applying a religious test. . . . Both Obama and McCain gave "good" answers, but that's not the point. They shouldn't have been asked. Is the American electorate now better prepared to cast votes knowing that Obama believes that "Jesus Christ died for my sins and I am redeemed through him," or that McCain feels that he is "saved and forgiven"?

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What does that mean, anyway? What does it prove? Nothing except that these men are willing to say whatever they must -- and what most Americans personally feel is no one's business -- to win the highest office.

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For the moment, let's set aside our curiosity about what Jesus might do in a given circumstance and wonder what our Founding Fathers would have done at Saddleback Church. What would have happened to Thomas Jefferson if he had responded as he wrote in 1781: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

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Would the crowd at Saddleback have applauded and nodded through that one? Doubtful. By today's new standard of pulpits in the public square, Jefferson -- the great advocate for religious freedom in America -- would have lost.