The Bible as Bludgeon - Why Religion Must Be Removed from Politics

Any honest reading of American history reveals that the Founding Fathers - all too well acquainted with an established church and the wars of religion that had plagued Europe - did not want religion intertwining with the civil laws of the newly founded United States of America.  Nonetheless, from the nation's beginning the charlatans and clerics who remain in power by duping the uneducated and gullible have worked incessantly to erase the true intent of the Founding Fathers and the same holds true today as politicians of both major political parties again and again prostitute themselves religious zealots and those who strive to have the civil laws effect a de facto established religion.  A religion that is a far right version of Christianity that is thick with hate, bigotry and intolerance.   A column in the New York Times looks at religion raising its foul head in the U.S. Senate race in Arkansas.  Here are highlights:

YOU can make a successful run for political office in this country without an especially thick résumé, any exceptional talent for expressing yourself, a noteworthy education or, for that matter, a basic grasp of science. 

But you better have religion. You better be ready to profess your faith in and fealty to God — the Judeo-Christian one, of course. And you better be convincing. A dust-up last week in the 2014 race for a United States Senate seat from Arkansas provided a sad reminder of this, showing once again that our ballyhooed separation of church and state is less canyon than itty-bitty crack. 

The Democratic incumbent, Mark Pryor, released a television commercial. . . . Pryor is taking a heavenly tack. His new commercial focuses not on health care, the sequester, immigration or anything like that. It extols the Bible. “This is my compass, my North Star,” he says in the 30-second spot. “It gives me comfort and guidance to do what’s best for Arkansas.” 

In response, the communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Brad Dayspring, pounced. But his complaint was not that Pryor was injecting gratuitous God talk into a campaign with less nebulous matters to discuss. Dayspring questioned whether Pryor was truly devout enough, emailing reporters a comment that Pryor made last year, when he said — cogently and correctly — that the Bible “is really not a rule book for political issues” and that “everybody can see it differently.” 

And while it’s tempting to attribute this silliness to a Southern politician’s need to appeal to the Christian fundamentalists prevalent in that region, the Arkansas episode is indicative of how thoroughly Americans from coast to coast let religion permeate public life. 

It’s in classrooms, some of which teach creationism. The Texas Board of Education has been withholding approval of a widely used biology textbook because it presents evolution as more than just a theory. Thus, in the nation’s second most populous state, whose governor essentially kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign with a stadium rally for tens of thousands of evangelicals, religion is trumping scholarship, at least for now. 

“So help me God.” “Under God.” “In God We Trust.” Perhaps we’re meant to register these ubiquitous phrases as unspecific inspirations, vague recognitions of an undefined higher power, general appeals to generous living. But they’re rooted in a given religious tradition and are arguably the gateways to the Arkansas ridiculousness . . . 

[U]using the Bible as a litmus test for character betrays the principles of religious liberty and personal freedom, along with the embrace of diversity, that are equally crucial to America’s identity and strength. It also defies the wisdom of experience. 

The intrusion of religion into campaigns gets ugly.  . . . . letting the government and its servants go too far in celebrating one religion over others creates the possibility of looking up someday to find that the religion being promoted isn’t your own. 

Religion is a cancer than needs to be excised from politics and public life.  Individuals can believe what they want.  However, they cannot be allowed to force those beliefs on others.  It is something the Christofascists would be wise to remember because someday - hopefully very soon - they will be a small minority and if the future majority acts as the Christofascists have acted, the future will be very bleak for the "godly folk."