Losing My Religion

This quote comes via Sojourners:

"Listen to candidates talk about religion and they seem to be following two rules: 1) Profess that nothing is more important to you than your religion. 2) Be as vague as possible about your religion." From Paul Waldman, author and senior fellow at Media Matters for America, in a recent Boston Globe op-ed.

It made me think. Pres. Bush hasn't been shy about mentioning details of his close personal relationship with Jesus. We know that Republican Mitt Romney is a Mormon and, as Bill Maher said the other night, "he wears magic underwear." I know nothing about McCain except he used to be known as a free-thinker from a Rocky Mountain state (Arizona) but now spends most of his time cozying up to fundamentalist creeps like Pat Robertson.

And the Democrats? Dennis Kucinich wrote and spoke extensively about his Roman Catholic beliefs during the 2004 campaign. There was an especially forthright column on his web site regarding his pro-choice stance on abortion. Fellow Catholic John Kerry was less open. Priests and the deacon at my Catholic Church urged us to vote for candidates that reflected the church's values, and not to vote for those who did not. I thought that Kucinich and Kerry (for the most part) best represented the church's stance on peace and justice issues, so I was a Kucinich delegate at the Wyoming Democratic Convention and voted for Kerry in the general election. Is that what father had in mind?

And then there are scores of other Dems in the presidential race. Hilary Clinton's religion seems to be power for power's sake (kind of like Bill's world view). Barack Obama? Don't know. Same goes for the rest of them. But I don't care. We've had too much religion in American politics since 2000. I'd rather know a candidate's views on how to get our asses safely out of Iraq than yet another soundbyte of a candidate spouting pompous platitudes.

Amen.