Hey, you got your religion in my politics!

This is not in essay form, so no guff about my wandering thoughts.

Religion…and Politics. Two things we aren’t supposed to talk about in polite company. And funnily enough two things that are merging. And, frankly, it pisses me off.

I’m a Christian. I’m not going to maintain that I am a particularly GOOD Christian, but I do all right. I say this so that my upcoming complaints about the Christian Right (as in wing, not correctness) won’t seem like the ranting of some upset Atheist. They will instead be the ranting of someone who supposedly has the same belief system as the people being ranted against.

Now, let me throw out a book: Golden Compass. In the books, apparently the ‘good guys’ kill god. I thought about it, and it seems to me that the real issue to the author wasn’t the notion of god, but of god and his followers forcing things on those around them. And frankly, I can’t blame him for hating it. Because I would too!

But, for me, God doesn’t force anything on me. I am free to ignore Him or try and follow. So, that’s cool in my book. And then I read the Bible. Nowhere in there does it say ANYTHING about forcing others to follow God. It may say to lead them to God, but it never says to FORCE them.

So we come to religion and politics. In this country, religion is playing a BIG role. Pastors are telling their members who and what to vote for. And Sghoul don’t play that. And I really feel that God doesn’t either. See, if He wanted everyone to act a certain way, He would have simply built us that way. He never asked us to enforce His rules. And He pretty much told us flat out NOT to judge people who don’t follow the rules. AND he said to love your neighbor. Not ‘Love thy neighbor unless they are a certain race or sexual orientation’.

I am basically tired of seeing freedoms go away so that Christians (and other religions I am sure) can feel like they are doing what’s right. But I don’t think they are. It just doesn’t seem like the right thing when you force it. Sure there are certain things, like theft and murder, that you have to punish to protect people. But stopping gay people from marrying…how exactly does that help anyone?

Most of all, just because a candidate says they are Christian….well, so what? Bush is Christian, and tons of people hate him. Clinton was a Christian and he had an affair in the white house and lied about it. Folks, your belief system does not necessarily dictate how good a person you are.

In summation, quit voting your faith. Quit pushing causes that take away freedoms simply because they go against your beliefs. You wanna help people? Take the time and money you have spent to stop abortion or gays and spend it on the poor and homeless. I read about this guy…he never said much about gays or abortion or porn or violent media. But he sure spent a good deal of time serving others and hanging with the needy. Maybe you could read about him yourself…