[Vision2020] Religion should play part in elections

[Tom Hansen]

The following letter to the editor, submitted by Larry Kirkland, in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY reflects my opinion.  It is presented merely to suggest that multi-celled organisms that share this view (for lack of a more appropriate term) do in fact exist.

That said . . .

Courtesy of today's (October 26, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

------------------------------

Religion should play part in elections
Lenna Harding (Her View, Oct. 13) said we must keep religion out of politics, government and elections. I strongly disagree, as well as acknowledging it cannot be done. I do agree with her that there should not "be some sort of litmus test for religiosity applied to candidates for office," but the Constitution, Article VI, Paragraph 3 has already addressed this.
Harding never defines what she means by religion. For the sake of this discussion, I am going to use the interpretation of the Supreme Court, which declares religion to mean "a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to the place held by God" in the lives of other persons. For example, the Supreme Court has specifically declared that atheism is a religion. Extrapolating a step further, I equate a person's worldview and their "religion."
As a Christian, I have a worldview based on God's word, the Bible, which determines how I live, my approach to work, to marriage, to avocations and how I interact with others and the environment. Similarly, Mormons and Muslims base their worldviews on the writings of the founders of their belief systems but much is borrowed from Christianity and Judaism. Humanists, socialists, Darwinists, radical environmentalists, communists, atheists, etc. live by worldviews that ascribe human origin to fortuitous chance, time and natural selection. In these worldviews, man has no ultimate purpose and there are no absolute rights and wrongs.
Harding included honesty, integrity and judgment in criteria she felt were important in considering a political candidate. These are absolute Judeo-Christian values prescribed by God. No society can long survive without these. Yet our president has lied about Obamacare, refuses to carry out several of the laws of the land, appears to have no specific plan for domestic economic recovery, is inconsistent in his foreign policy and has yet to come up with a plan for dealing with Iran as it approaches possession of nuclear weapons. He has no clearly discernible "religion" or worldview but he appears to deify abortion and homosexual rights, manifests socialist leanings and defers to Islam while generally being anti-Israel.
He is an amazing orator but that is of little value without a viable worldview and the leadership skills to accomplish a specific plan. Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruit." Politicians' fruits are the products of their worldview and we all benefit or suffer from those fruits. We are now suffering the consequences of political worldviews that are not in the best interest of the nation.
Harding also said, "Remember how many well-know clergy have fooled us?" To be honest, I don't. I am aware of some lesser known clergy/pastors who have sinned and gone against the clear teachings of the Scriptures they profess, but the majority of well-know clergy are that because they continue to live and teach the word of God they profess. I am more aware that many politicians have abused their public trust and gone against any religious beliefs they might have professed.
Religion or worldview is extremely important in the election of leaders. Knowing a candidate's worldview/religion should tell us a lot about their view of honesty, integrity, judgment, humility, the sacredness of human life and marriage, how they will conduct foreign policy and manage domestic policy. What we really need is the media to honestly probe each candidate's religion/worldview and then write with integrity so voters are better informed and can vote with understanding.
Larry Kirkland is a retired environmental engineer who lives in Moscow. He can be contacted at kirkland8 at frontier.com
------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Honest and true,
As the morning star.
Vote for just two,
Ament and Lamar."

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20111026/380e43f3/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 17920 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20111026/380e43f3/attachment-0001.jpeg>