Agnostic.com

14 3

How do we legitimately get religion out of US politics?

I was born and raised in England, and lived there until I was 26. Never once did I hear religion come up in elections or in speeches. I had no clue what the religious beliefs were of any politician. Over here, everyone has to be a believer or they are never getting elected. Recent studies indicate 1 in 10 people here don't believe in God, and that number is growing. There are hundreds of politicians, so clearly some of them are lying. The thing is, why should it even be an issue? What does the belief in some fake entity have to do with law?

BritishBulldog 3 Nov 7
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

14 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

Im canadian, we do not talk about god in politics seems to be an american thing and it is pretty weird.

0

It will be a slow process. People believing in religion is finally decreasing significantly. We have made a lot of progress away from religion but we have a long way to go.

0

I've read that there were SOME Christians and SOME Secularists among our forefathers that put together the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Christians of the mid-twentieth century won out and got "In God We Trust" on our coinage. Pastors of churches, in the past, would not venture into the political melee. Now, the leaders of congregations let their members know who should be supported in elections. I think the unfortunate truth is politicians, for the most part, are church-goers (whether they coerce their girl-friends into having an abortion or not). Christians, within a nationally recognized denomination or not, seem to be more organized when it comes to politics.

1

To answer the question ... there should always be a separation of church and state. That's what I'd insist on since that is THE line to be drawn.

0

I think it would be a good start is to start enforcing that part of the tax code that says religions are only tax exempt (in the U.S.), so long as they stay out of politics. If they want a voice in government, they shoudl help pay for the government

0

Groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Humanists and a few others are successfully using our Constitution and numerous Supreme Court decisions to chip away at the attempts to put religion into the public sphere. Unfortunately, I have seen too many mega church gatherings with hundreds of people almost waving their checkbooks in the air to fund lobbying to upend our secular democracy.

0

I think it crops up from time to time. Here in the States we seem to be on again. It's been building for the last... 50 -60 years or so. Our schools have shifted a bit to not include government or our constitution in quite as much depth as it used to and our people have forgotten what's in it and what it means. I've run across a few younger people who cannot remember a time in school that they even read through it in class and discussed it, never mind in depth study or other readings about it. I remember in school we went as far as reading letters and articles from the original founding fathers though the exact wording is a bit muddled in my head now. I don't like conspiracy theory hoopla and generally don't give it much attention but there had been growing discussion about how the more conservative, alt-right people involved in the education department slowly, systematically and very purposefully removed bits and pieces of government, civics, politics and anything constitution based out of the schools. I don't know if that's why it's nearly gone but however it happened, well... there it is.

AmyLF Level 7 Nov 8, 2017
0

Thankfully here in Australia the religious right are fighting a losing rearguard action. Our last Prime Minister was a professed devout Catholic, and was basicly laughed out of office, his opinion polls got so bad the party stabbed him in the back.

0

Religion is big business they lobby and contribute to campaigns in exchange for promotions of their cause, same as oil companies, big pharma, and so on. Power, control, and greed are what is being served.

Betty Level 8 Nov 8, 2017
2

Buy commercial air time and start reading the Story of Sinhue, Gilgamesh, Enuma Elis, and the code of Hammurabi. People may get a different idea about the origin of the bible. Even better, locate the Q document.

2

It is not about law. It is about mass manipulation. Most religious people in the USA do not know enough about their own religion nor the Bible. All they know is that it makes them feel good, gives them a sense of belonging and fills them with hope. So when a politician says "in the name of Jesus" or "the nation under God", he is just appealing to the indoctrination already in the brains of many. It is a nice and easy way to avoid the hard questions. "How would you handle the economy? How would you increase jobs? How would you fight corruption?" . Then the power structure pulls out the picture of a religious symbol, and all these questions go away. How do we remove religion from politics? My firm opinion is that all freethinkers, scientists, agnostics and atheist should publicly denounce this game, and show how invoking Jesus, the Lord, etc, etc has been nothing but smoke and mirrors.

3

We can (and should) vote for, and possible elect non-religious candidates. These candidates, of which I have been and will be again, should get everyone's vote as being totally and unequivocally in support the separation of state and church. There should be no question of not giving any government benefit to churches, etc. I expect a tremendous pushback from the religious right.

I cannot even begin to tell you how whole heartedly I agree with this.

3

Several types of efforts can help. First, persistent legal actions through such organizations as the ACLU and other progressive organizations. Second, by persistently questioning political candidates and making it clear what they are doing and why. Third, we can organize resistance to candidates who comingle their religion and politics. It will never be easy, but it has to be done or we let the religious right impose their ideology on us.

1

the politicians need to pay attention to the separation of church and state. Seems our founders thought there shouldnt be comingling of the two. Maybe from the point of view of inclusiveness or knowing the pitfalls of having a religious state knowing how the Catholic Church affected freedom of religion elsewhere.We have to vote for those who will follow this principal , RIght now we are too far from that even if I were a practicing Christian

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:3069
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.