There are some very interesting Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times today. One of the best is on religion and politics by Gary Hart. Check it out here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/opinion/08hart.html
We Democrats really dropped the ball this time around. And I think pieces like this one and others that have come out in the last week (such as works by Arianna Huffington and comments by Bill Maher) have really pointed out where we fell apart. Hopefully, we can learn from all of this and move on. But the one thing I really agree with and that I've been thinking a lot about is this trend to combine religion and politics. And not just any religion, it HAS to be Christianity. The separation of church and state is becoming more and more ambiguous and that troubles me because that way of thinking excludes a large portion of our country. I"ve always thought one of our strengths was our diversity, open-mindedness and inclusiveness. Well, at least we still have diversity. Anyway, check out the article. It's very thoughtful.
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That was an interesting article. I am not sure why so many people believe it's OK to force others to believe the same things they do. I was listening to Talk of the Nation last week and a woman called in and said the only country to actually have separation of church & state in their constitution was Russia. Even when the host pointed out that's not true, and we actually *do* have that in our constitution, she continued to press her belief. I don't understand why people are so adament that a christian god be everywhere.
You know, in an earlier blog, I wrote about Molly Ivins' new book and how she talked about how Jesus was the ultimate liberal. I really loved that. I don't think people should be vilified for being religious. But I also don't think that is limited to Christianity. One of my favorite quotes that I ran across in college was
"God made so many different kinds of people, why would He make only one way to serve Him?" (anonymous)
I've always liked that. I think many religious people have a faith that is very small so anything that challenges it makes them afraid. If you are really strong and comfortable in your faith, you don't need to feel threatened by differences of opinion.
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