Getting God-Talk Out of Politics
According to the Bible, one cannot serve two masters. So my question to politicians is, “Are you a public servant or a servant of God?”
I think it is time for the greater community of reason to start throwing our weight around in politics. We need to start making it clear to politicians that we will not tolerate the God talk.
Politicians are free to talk about whatever they like of course, but there will be a price to be paid. We should no longer tolerate a politician’s use of religion and any such use will not only be grounds for criticism and will result in a lack of support and votes for that politician.
This will put politicians in a difficult spot. If they use religion, they may gain votes from the religious (especially Republicans) but in doing so they will lose votes from people within the greater community of reason which is about 10 to 15 percent of Americans. Democrats will be forced to weigh this cost carefully and even Republicans might lose a few votes too. Those few votes could cost elections especially then the Republican knows that the religious will vote for him or her religiously anyway.
While the Constitution demands that no religious test is required for public office we all know that there is a religious test imposed by the public. It is time we impose our own public religious test and insure that our politicians are secular. If a candidate uses religion in their political rhetoric, we should call them out on it and withdraw our support.
On the local level that would be very effective. Local politicians need every vote and usually take criticisms like this very seriously. This will say in their minds as they run for higher offices. When dealing with candidates for higher office, we will need to set up letter writing campaigns to voice our criticism.
We must hold these politicians accountable!
Related articles
- Are politicians asking voters to test their religion? (secularnewsdaily.com)
- Tea Party bait in the NYT: “You are white, Republican, and racist. Oh, and theocratic, too.” (lawafterthebar.wordpress.com)
- In God We Vote (Guest Voice) (themoderatevoice.com)
- You Get What You Vote For (margaretandhelen.wordpress.com)
Filed under: culture war, Election, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics
