Why can’t we get religion out of politics and government?
It’s probably no surprise to many than I’m an atheist. If it IS a surprise, that would indicate either that you don’t know me, or that I’ve been biting my tongue for some unknown, probably perverse, reason.
Since I AM an atheist, I become extremely annoyed, not to mention outright antagonised, by the obvious fact that religions run politics in this country, regardless the supposed separation of church and state. Of course, I also live in a state in which there IS no separation of church and state, de facto or otherwise. (You don’t understand the word “minority” until you’re an atheist living in Utah…. and a nearly 60 year old female one to boot!)
I don’t believe that the word “god” and its adjuncts should appear in any context in any documents pertaining to the governing of this country, or its member states; in songs, or on walls in courtrooms. I don’t care if heartburn over my attitude strikes all the good followers of religious cults wholesale: you want to do religion, fine - do it at HOME. Keep it out of politics, the marketplace, off tv and radio, and off the lawns of government buildings during the holidays.
I don’t care if this country was founded by the devout of any or a given religion. What on earth does that have to do with life now? Until all you religious cultists with your hard-nosed attitudes about OTHERS’ religious cults (or lack thereof….) can understand that you are entitled ONLY to your own beliefs without trying to dump them wholesale onto others, I think you shouldn’t have any say at all in politics or running this country.
And by the way, I think someone needs to look at the fact that the “state church” of Utah is nothing more than a mega-corp, and start forcing it to pay taxes.
>>>>
That was a post I didn’t post a while back. I got sidetracked by other things before it got finished. But now, here’s a corollary article from the New York Times which points up some of how I feel, and expands on the situation I find here where I live, in another though equally unwholesome direction.
I guess I will never understand why people can’t simply live and let live.
