Last night I had the pleasure of watching CNN host what they dubbed as "The Faith Forum" from Messiah College. I was completely taken aback at the entire idea of this. Now let me set the record straight that I am a man of faith and have had a faith life ever since I can remember. I grew up in church and if the story is correct, my mother even went into labor with me while sitting in a pew of her home church. So yeah, you could say that faith has been there from the very beginning.
What struck me odd is the idea of these two candidates (John McCain was invited but opted out...hmmmm?) talking about their faith and how that faith has "transformed" their lives and the power of the "Holy Spirit" has been with them since they were children. Neither of them looked terribly comfortable and gave, what I consider, the "sunday school" answer to most questions. I found a lot of rambling nonsense that went on and on. The most striking aspect to me was how they parsed out their faith and belief system into their personal and public lives. Both candidates were aware of their faith and the presence of the "Holy Spirit" being with them but seemed to delineate between their very public lives and their personal journeys. Campbell Brown tried her best to get the Hill to talk about the whole "I never had sex with that woman" scandal and somehow parle that into a whimsical story of how the good Lord saw her through such great emotional trauma and personal tragedy. The Hill didn't go there and rightly so. There is a line between the personal and public journey.
See, what most of the evangelical world wants is for our presidents and senators, and congressman, etc. to be God loving and God fearing individuals and, most importantly, PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. The problem is this....our nation is NOT a christian nation and I would dare say, even some who profess to be christians may not have the slightest clue of what it means to be a christian. The founding father's did not establish our country as a "christian nation" but rather built into it's framework a decided separation of the church and state. This DOES NOT mean that religion is eliminated from the political sphere. On the contrary, references to God, the Deity, the Creator are far from exempt in the writings of the founding fathers. Where they draw the line is the idea of establishing a certain state religion...a religion sanctioned by the government. This was a freedom to practice religion as we see fit, or not at all if your from California....kidding. It was not a freedom FROM religion nor was our country ever intended to be a secular state....far from it. It is undeniable the intent of the founding fathers...read your history books people! Better yet, go to Washington DC and look at the documents for yourself.
All this to say, I was glad to hear that the two Dem candidates have a faith structure in their lives....no matter how genuine or politically motivated. But I will say this...I want my president and leaders to be just that....leaders. And I want them to be leaders for all the people...even my friends who don't acknowledge sweet baby Jesus and are going to burn in the eternal fires of damnation for all eternity separated from all that is good and holy...that was for my heathen friends....see you this weekend! If I want to hear a sermon, then I will go to my church and hear my pastor preach. I don't want to hear it from my president or any of my governmental leaders. Morality is not and should not be legislated from the government. Now I know this flies in the face of my christian duties and responsibilities to "hold up the Light" and "carry the flag and sword of truth". But that is the job of the church at large NOT the government. Christians can and should fight for what they believe in and should vote those persons who share the same value system....that is what democracy is all about. If you think that references to God should be removed from every nook and cranny of society, then get out there and find the biggest heathen you can and vote em in...just remember, you'll burn in hell forever.
That is all...
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