Thursday, July 19, 2007

Politics and Religion

It is only human. Whenever a religious person gets mixed up in politics, his religion goes out the window. He soon warps his religious ideas so that they support his politics. It never seems to work the other way, that a man’s politics change to accommodate his religion. I can imagine that is why our Constitution separates one from the other—so that there is no state supported religion.

It is a bad combination, politics and religion. When I taught school and the subject was pertinent, I always told the kids that when they grew up to vote or to run cities, states or even the country (we had that quality of kids), they must keep their religious leaders from being their political leaders. “Or else,” I told them, “you will have politicians who would try to convince them that if they would give up their lives for one political cause or another, they would win a place in heaven.” I told them that political leaders are usually the last to know about heaven.

Don’t tell me it can’t happen. It happens all the time. What about Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII and Suicide Murderers (bombers) in the Middle East? And then there is always Jim Jones and his Kool Aid fan club.

No comments: