Religion + Goverment

[Amputechture]

Over time, religion has slowly become less and less influential within the government. There was a time when religion was what fueled a vast majority of governments. In the US, the Republican party in particular insists on using "Religion" and "god" to fuel their arguments. It rubs me the wrong way.

Discuss.

[Clive-φ-Davidson ImagesNM]

HOW DARE YOU!?

That is what I was going to say! }8¬D

[Robert Sym Wilson]

I think that religion should have absolutely nothing to do with government.

Government should run the people with right and wrong, people can believe what they want, everyone is happy. I am an Atheist, but I don't have a problem with people believing other things, people can do what they want. But when you use religion to tell people what to do, you are in no right. That is truth.

[Madeline Lola]

Church and State should be completely separate, and our government in the USA says it is, but it isn't entirely. Whenever a politician neglects the words "God bless america" they are penalized. I think that the government should be polite and take to heart the beliefs of the people, but not everyone is chirsitan! I personally am jewish, and there are millions of muslims in our country too and yet they are frowned upon as terrorists and bad people. yes that is stimulated from current events, but the government should make an effort to have people think of each other as equals, i mean isn't that what our country is supposed to be about? When someone sees a person that LOOKS like they might be muslim in an airport they get over-suspicious, how do they know that the real threat is the white, "normal looking" man or woman walking right by. Our country does way to much profiling, and I know i'm getting a bit of the the religion topic but jumping back to it, we get angry at muslim's version of Jihad, but what about the recent case of a man MURDERING an abortion doctor! That IS ALSO Jihad!!! the definition of Jihad is any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle. The christian beliefs that our country has lived by are going too far, what i mean by that is there are people who are afraid to be in this country just because of what they look like and a certain detail in their Holy text is different from the Bible

[Amputechture]

@Thedragonfruitking.

You're equally as arrogant/ignorant as a christian to say that Christianity is completely wrong. This also isn't a debate as to whether or not Christianity is "Wrong", but whether or not religion belongs in the goverment.

[BSmith]

So you're saying that we should forbid certain people from representing us because of their religious views? I see a problem with this.

[Amputechture]

Of course he isn't saying that. What he is saying is that people shouldn't incorporate god or religion into their POLITICAL arguments. Republicans throw the word god around ALL of the time.

[Loopy Grumpkins]

The Jewish holy book is the Torah and the Hindu book is the Vedas.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

I think it's rather absurd to eliminate all religion from public discourse. Follow that logic, and William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King would both be removed as figures from world history. Those are just two examples off the top of my head, but they are far from alone.

While it is true that religion should never be imposed upon people, it would be wrong to say that religious people should not be allowed to bring their beliefs into their political career, provided that any legislation they draft does not violate people's fundamental human rights.

[Eystein,]

Actually I think it is necessary. The thing with WW and MLK is that while being Christians themselves they were also advocating their cause to a population who largely and almost homogeneously considered itself christian. Things are different now.

I am sure that even if they had to refrain from referring to scripture, they would still have found different and more universal words to persuade people to their cause.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Actually I think it is necessary. The thing with WW and MLK is that while being Christians themselves they were also advocating their cause to a population who largely and almost homogeneously considered itself christian. Things are different now.

 

WW wasn't dealing with a "Christian" people. They may have nominally called themselves Christian, but they didn't actually do anything about it. And I fail to see how MLK was dealing with a particularly more "Christian" America than we are now. Christians in politics should be free to bring their faith up. As long as they do not plan on using it as justification for violating people's fundamental rights, there is not an issue.

[Hutch Hogan]

Christians in politics should be free to bring their faith up. As long as they do not plan on using it as justification for violating people's fundamental rights, there is not an issue.

Though the populace should be able to mock them for it. 

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

They have a right to, in so far as they have free speech, although they have no real need to.