Whats your view of a candidates religious preferences? Will you vote for someone because your church tells you to? Or because they are prochoice or not? Or because they are catholic or jewish or muslim or not? How do you see their religious preferences affecting their role as president? We are by law supposed to have separation between church and state. How important is that? Would you support a candidate that believes in the rapture or that he or she will talk to Jesus in their lifetime?
Religion has pretty close to zero effect of my vote. The only way I will take it into consideration is if the candidate bases his/her policies on their religious beliefs.
The principle of separation of church and state is very important. A candidate can do or think anything he/she wants in their private time, and many will tell you that their religious covictions give them strngth and focus. However, attempts to establish a state-sponsored religion, favoring one religion over another, or just promoting religious programs over non-religious ones is a major problem. There is a great organization called "Americans United for Separation of Church and State," which is run by a pastor named Barry Lynn. http://www.au.org/site/PageServer It is incredible what some of our officials try to get away with. For example, here is a recent headline fromt heir site: You have politicians trying to favor one religion over another, trying to force through intelligent design into the classroom, judges stating that they believe that our nation was formed on the basis of Christianity, etc. How about this: http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&page=NewsArticle&id=9851 or this: http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&page=NewsArticle&id=9779#cs11 I just picked those out at random after spending about three minutes on their site. It has taken me longer to write this post. The extent of this sort of stuff is shocking.
Al Gore and GW Bush couldn't try hard enough to outdo each other about using govt. funds to help religious organizations provide services to the communities where appropriate. It was a major item for discussion during the debates. Ironically, the churches don't really want this kind of funding because they don't want the govt. meddling in their affairs as they meddle in everything else. As for the question posed in post #1, it doesn't bother me in the least if a candidate is religious or what his/her religion is.
A politician's religious beliefs don't bother me. They can be any religion, or atheist/agnostic, and it wouldn't affect my appraisal of them as politicians. Separation of church and state is extremely important to me. Making policy based on religious belief is a huge negative to me, I support all efforts to remove religious presences in government-owned/run facilities and use of tax-payer money for religious efforts.
It's disappointing that all major candidates for office appear to believe that it is a necessity to wear their religious beliefs on their sleeve. As far as I can tell, McCain is the least of these; the furthest he will go to pander to the religious right is to tell a story about someone' ELSE'S religious beliefs (the guard who prays next to him in the POW camp). Part of the problem, of course, is the interference that major religions are causing in issues such as homosexuality and teaching in the schools. If someone wants to pray, great. Go ahead and pray. Just don't tell me what I can or can't do, don't try to influence what I think or what I believe.
I think his selection of Palin was a pander to the religious right. But I agree that he's the lowest-key about his own beliefs. I think that so far in the US' history, religion is a big deal and you can't be elected without being an avowed Christian. It was considered a big moment when a non-Protestant (JFK) was elected, and he was still a Christian. I think any candidate who said that he/she wasn't a Christian would currently stand no chance of being elected. When that "barrier" is broken, I think a Jew would stand the best chance of breaking it. A Muslim or Hindu is eons from having a chance. I'm not sure how far off an atheist is from being acceptable. I'd love to see a Buddhist President!
Aside from any serious scandals (which is possible, since it is Louisiana), Bobby Jindal is going to run for President at some point, probably in 2012 or 2016. As much as Republicans would've loved him to be McCain's VP pick, he became Governor in January. It wouldn't have worked. But if Rush Limbaugh calls you the next Ronald Reagan, you must be doing something right. As for the question, I couldn't care less whether Obama was a Muslim or a Christian, or whether McCain was Catholic or Baptist. I vote based on ideology and who I think is the best candidate.
Religion plays no role in my decision either. It's sad that it does to a lot of people around the world though.
If a candidate is overly religious and talks about it in such a way that it will impact their policy decisions, I can not support them. This is one of many reasons the 2000 election disgusted me.
Only because in his VP debate he could have said to Joe Biden, "I know you think I must work at a convenience store..."
Religion has no part of being a factor in a country that practices freedom of religion. Unfortunately though a persons faith is a huge factor to a very large number of people in the US, the ones who tend to look down their noses at less than their moral equivalents (which is of course hypocrisy at it's finest).
How bout Pentacostal? She is a member of a cult. [video=youtube;naXqE4dTxPA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naXqE4dTxPA[/video]
In 1960 they made a big deal about kennedy being a Catholic......a number of interviewers asked if elected would he be taking orders from the pope. In 2000 they made a big deal about Leiberman not only being a Jew, but being an orthodox Jew.... a number of interviewers asked him whether his allegiance was to Israel or to the US..... The Jewish religion and the Catholic religion are far more mainstream than the Pentacostals.... and the branch that Palin belongs to is pretty freaky. I wonder when someone is going to ask her about it. They should.
That is because the "mainstream" media/powerbrokers is/was filled with protestant denominations that dislike Catholics and Jews.
Ohh a witch hunter!!! Is that a far cry from an Exorcist? BTW the little clips of that church and her speaking kinda freak me out, they scream "AMWAY DIAMOND MEMBER!!!" Ironically that's they way I see too many of the modern era Christian Churches.
Article VI of the US Constitution reads in part, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
