Politics and faith - Updated


Quote that agrees with my point that matters of faith are personal
There are some people who believe faith doesn't belong in politics. But it does, and it is there inextricably. The antislavery movement, the temperance movement, the civil rights movement, the antiabortion movement, all were political movements animated in large part by religious feeling. It's not that it doesn't matter. You bring your whole self into the polling booth, including your faith and your sense of right and wrong, good and bad, just as presidents bring their whole selves into the Oval Office. I can't imagine how a president could do his job without faith.

But faith is also personal. You can be touched by a candidate's faith, or interested in his apparent lack of it. It's never wholly unimportant, but you should never see a politician as a leader of faith, and we should not ask a man who made his rise in the grubby world of politics to act as if he is an exemplar of his faith, or an explainer or defender of it.

We have the emphasis wrong. It's out of kilter. And the result is a Mitt Romney being harassed on radio shows about the particulars of his faith, and Hillary Clinton--a new-class yuppie attorney and board member--announcing how important her Methodist faith is and how much she loves wearing her diamond cross. For all I know, for all you know, it is true. But there is about it an air of patronizing the rubes and boobs.
— Peggy Noonan, People Before Prophets, OpinionJournal.com, November 23, 2007

Great point. And it is one that I wish more people would recognize.

It's also one that is essential to the foundation of this blog. It's perfectly possible to be a "person of faith" without inflicting that faith on all your neighbors. When a politico tells you to vote for them BECAUSE of their religion, you should tell them to get stuffed. Religion doesn't guarantee virtue. And there are very few things in this world that are more dangerous than an elected official who can hide behind "holy teachings" while wrapping themselves in a flag.

Religion can't be allowed the coercive power of government, government can't be allowed the moral justification of religion. I can't put it any more clearly than that.

Otherwise YOUR freedom is at stake.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - November 25, 2007 at 03:37 PM  Tag


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