Stone's Throw From Theocracy: Politics, Religion, & Our Next President

The November Presidential Election is close...and as freethinkers, we should take into consideration how each candidates' religious views shape their politics and behavior.

Both McCain and Obama have made appeals to their Christianity. McCain's appeal lies largely with the conservative religious right, as well to some otherwise liberal/Democratic voters, such as Catholics. Obama attracts more liberal voters who relate their faith to social justice.

It's risky enough being a Catholic and running for President, let alone a Jew or Muslim or *gasp* a nonbeliever.

As if McCain's pro-military aggression, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, and other views weren't concerning enough to secularists, Sarah Palin's involvement with Pentecostalism, her clearly literalist interpretation of the Bible, and downright scary rhetoric connecting the Iraq War and drilling for oil in Alaska with "God's will" make me afraid we are only a stone's throw from theocracy. And I mean "stone's throw" in every sense the Old Testament phrase implies.

I have uploaded a Word document with Secular Humanism Online News' September newsletter. The first article, "The Danger of the Religious Right in this Presidential Election" By Edward Tabash is the most relevant, though the entire newsletter touches on political issues. Click on this link, which will open the Word document:
http://files.meetup.c...
or go to the "Files" section of the group's site (on the lefthand side of the page).

There are also several articles you may want to look at.

Sam Harris' concerns in Newsweek that Sarah Palin is more religiously extreme & anti-intellectual than Bush
http://www.newsweek.c...

How Palin's church has shaped her politics (watch the video of her speaking at her old church on this site - it's scary):
http://www.huffington...

Salon.com - Democrats try to rally moderate evangelicals for Obama:
http://www.salon.com/...

Obama speaks on how Christianity has shaped his political views:
http://obama.senate.g...

Finally, here are some quotes to consider:

As one blogster put it (taken from the Salon.com article), "Do we really need a presidential campaign based on out-Jesusing the other side?"

From Obama's speech, why he won't outlaw abortion:
"...we live in a pluralistic society, that I can't impose my own religious views on another, that I was running to be the U.S. Senator of Illinois and not the Minister of Illinois."

Also from Obama's speech, as he recognizes the importance of faith to the American populace:
"And if we're going to do that then we first need to understand that Americans are a religious people. 90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution."