The primaries and the coming elections have got me stirred up about religion in politics again. I have several thoughts that I need to say just to keep them from rolling around in my mind. As I understand Christianity, it’s about two things – one’s personal conduct on earth and one’s salvation for the afterlife. The second one is certainly personal. But so is the first one. In fact, what Jesus had to say about others is love them, don’t judge them, and clean up your own side of the street, etc. I don’t recall him saying anything about controlling what other people do. And if anything, he seemed to be a rebel about organized religion – shying away from laws, money, a religious heirarchy. Where does this religion of Jesus say anything about trying to change the government? Similarly, Mohammed was a unifier. His focus was on unifying the warring tribes in the desert – in religion and in their dealings with each other. He said, "There is only one God." That part about "and Mohammed is his only Prophet" was an add on.
It reminds me of my early days as a Psychotherapist. Like most, I avoided talking about religion with my patients. It seemed like it wasn’t my business. But a particular patient taught me otherwise. "Psychotherapy is about relationships. My most important relationship is with God. I need to talk about it." She was right. My take on things is that she was speaking a general truth. Instead of leaving people to the whims of James Dobson and Pat Robertson, it seems that it would make more sense to directly challenge these perversions of religious thought on "religious grounds." Did Jesus teach bigotry? Did Jesus encourage block voting? Did Mohammed promote bombing? Did either advocate hatred of other people? Was "Values Voting" a good idea, given that your last candidates started a war based on lies and, by the way, advocate torture?
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