huckabee is soaring in the polls, sucking rudi's wind and nipping at romney's heels. we have a sbc minister, with a nutter of a son, (have you seen the family christmas card? gah! they all look like they are on a day-pass from the home. grown-ups in matching sweaters? are you kidding me? it's like a demented obese version of the williams family) a grand-standing fascist with estranged kids, multiple ex-wives, affairs, and felonious friends on his payroll, not to mention that pesky pro-choice/pro-gay agenda, and a telegenic, flip-flopping, political worm of a mormon. a mormon.
right here, right now:
"congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
the first 16 words of the american bill of rights, 1791. yeah, the witch-hunting/hanging puritans got lots of press, but most founding fathers were of the rational secular deist or atheist bent. they saw the rolling heads that resulted when the country's ruler ran the church, and the empty state coffers when the papists ran amok. let's not displace authority to another plane where no body is accountable. separation of church and state. quake and shake all you want. craft perfect chairs, be celibate, don't lift a musket or eat mutton. hell, writhe and speak in tongues. god is not in charge. a wealthy white man is. k, all good?
fast forward to now. the *leader of the free world* (has any presidential reference become more shameful?) truly believes he works under the hand "of a just and faithful god." yup. he thinks god speaks directly to him. under a different lineage and in a long ago era, he might have felt a very itchy noose around his breaking neck. instead, he rails against those who follow another god just as strongly, yet in opposition. he cannot see it's a geographical divide, not a philosophical one. jihad? crusade? call it what you will, but everybody just wants to kill everybody else in the name of their god and his rightness. welcome back to the middle ages.
the dog-and-pony show that is the current presidential race was WAAAAY too much too soon, but months ago i remember the childish glee of, "raise your hands if you DON'T believe in evolution." palms shot up in the air. (they must have run out of time for, "if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!") like, 80 years later, we're now in a time warp and fighting the scopes monkey trial!!!! all these home-schoolers turning back the clock and throwing out the books. gah.
my mother is extremely conservative and voraciously catholic, yet has no trouble rationalizing that god controls evolution. she doesn't need proof, she has faith. follow?
romney, last week, in his supposed sermon on the mount: "freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom." the first part of that makes my eyes bleed.
is there another *1st world* country where religion has become a merit badge for running for office? worse still, membership to a crank religion that disputes science? any flat-earthers or moonies running for parliament someplace?? uh, NO.
long before the roman empire collapsed, pundits decried its demise. lead in the air and water, distracted despots, unchecked greed and overextension of the empire's resources loomed deadly. and so they were.
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