Posted by
Brad Yeager on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 10:15:27 AM
“I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist.” John Kerry, July 2004
“Religion has been a huge part of my life, helped lead me through a war, leads me today. But I can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn’t share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can’t do that. But I can counsel people. . .” John Kerry, October 2004
“I don’t think I have the right to impose my view – on something I accept as a matter of faith – on the rest of society.” Joseph Biden, 2007
“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. . . Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves a compromise. . . At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. . . To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.” Barack Obama, June 2006 “Call to Renewal” Keynote Address
What strikes you about those statements? What is the common theme? Apparently, there is no place for religion or religious faith in politics. Beyond that, one’s faith is evidently separate from who one is. It is something that we can set aside. We can box it up and shelve it should we so choose. Righteously we can take the box out again and adorn ourselves properly on the appropriate holy days – perhaps even for five minutes before bedtime when we pray or for the 15 minutes in the morning when we read the Good Book. It is either that, or the “faith” is much more a facade than anything else.