Category Archives: politics

Romney, Obama and Christianity

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Some conservative Republicans are concerned that Romney being Mormon will divide the voting base, turning away some mainstream conservative Christian voters.  So will they vote for Obama instead?  25% of Americans still believe Barack Obama is Muslim.

For those that believe Romney is a Christian, I’d like to point out that Obama is also.  If you believe Mormons are not Christian, may I suggest that perhaps Obama is a Muslim.  Now…

This an election year.  In November we will select a president for the next four years.  We’re not electing a pope, you will not be attending his church.  Regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, we still have 535 members of Congress ensuring nothing will get passed and 7 Supreme Court Justices to overrule it if it does.

The issues in this election are unemployment, national debt, immigration, health care and mid-east wars.  Let’s pretend both candidates are scientologists and move on to discussing the political views of both men.

Marriage Equality in the United States

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The Christian blogosphere is lit up with Obama’s public support for gay marriage rights in the United States.  My post yesterday was a knee-jerk reaction to hearing the news.  That post is about the biblical definition of marriage, that goes off on a tangent of America not being a “Christian nation.”  This post is more about the news: Obama supports gay marriage rights, some demographics, and speculation about this election year.

Obama coming out in support of what he calls marriage equality comes just a few days after Biden made similar remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press.  Others in his administration were making similar statements and there is speculation that Obama was somewhat pressured into taking a similar stance.  Even if that’s how he already felt personally, this is the strongest statement he has ever made regarding gay and lesbian rights.  We now have an American president that public supports gay and lesbian marriage. Continue reading →

Is Mitt Romney a Christian?

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Is Mitt Romney a Christian?  Are Mormons Christian?

Many others have already posted on this.  Here’s the article that got me thinking.  My issue has less to do with Romney’s faith than with the significance of a candidates faith when considering a president.  But first things first.

Are Mormons Christian?  The short answer is yes, but it comes with a lot of baggage to unpack.  Mormons, who would prefer to be called Latter Day Saints or LDS, read the Bible and believe in Jesus Christ.  Anyone worshiping Christ is a Christian in that sense.  As a believer in Christ, Romney falls in that classification.  But that’s not all Mormons believe. Continue reading →

There Is No Christian Nation

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I read an e-mail just moments ago that started with these words: “A Christian Nation cannot put up a Christmas scene of the baby Jesus in  a public place, but the Muslims can stop normal traffic every Friday afternoon by worshiping in the streets.”   After a couple more paragraphs, several images are shown of Muslims bowing to pray on Madison Ave. in New York.  I’m trying hard to ignore certain things so that I can focus on having a coherent point and not go off on some tangent rant.  Such as pointing out there is no such thing as “normal traffic” in New York City.  The Muslims haven’t stopped traffic from moving; New Yorkers did that back in the 70’s.

Where is this so-called Christian Nation? Because we don’t live in one. Continue reading →

There is No Such Thing as a Ground Zero Mosque

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There is an old saying that goes “You can’t believe everything you hear.”  In this day and age, what with viral videos, soundbite political ads, Twittering, mass e-mail forwards and ever-shortening attention spans, we do tend to believe everything we hear.  Research is time consuming and considered perhaps somewhat unnecessary in the information age.  This is especially true if a piece of information creates an emotional response.  We hear something that makes us mad, and in a blind rage forward e-mails, talk out of our heads, or fire off a heated blog post.  Does it matter whether or not the info is true?

And that brings us to the Ground Zero Mosque. Continue reading →

Separation of Church, State and Twitter

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Read the full story here (CNN).  The issue is over Rep John Shimkus (R- IL) posting Bible verses daily on his Twitter account.  Political activist Barry Lynn claims that Shimkus tweeting Bible verses is a violation of separation of church and state.  My argument is that the only people reading the verses are the 3,000 or so followers who subscribe to receive the tweets.  There is no violation here.  Hundreds of comments took the same or similar positions, including those of atheists, agnostics, and those simply identifying themselves as non-Christian.

The establishment clause states that Congress shall make no law establishing a religion.  Sending personal tweets is not a legislative procedure.  Shimkus is also granted the first amendment right to express himself and exercise his religious beliefs freely.  Again, he is not quoting the Bible on the floor of Congress but in tweets read by his followers.  Does anyone care to weigh in, or is this matter too cut and dried to debate?

A Letter to the President

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Tom Foreman is a correspondent on Anderson Cooper 360.  I actually read through his letter the first time thinking that it was written by Anderson Cooper, and although it’s not, it is written by one of his guys and displayed by CNN on their website.  Foreman has been writing President Obama a letter each week since he took office.  Here is a sample of his latest offering, in reference to Christians in America, since Easter is this week:

People of faith sometimes mistake their own fist for the hand of God; non-believers sometimes mistake scientific findings for proof that God is not there. Faith by its very nature is not subject to proof one way or the other. If you had proof, it would not be faith. If you need proof, faith is far away.

And if we can learn to accept those opposing stances in each other, we’ll be a stronger nation where both the faithful and faithless can share the peace and wonders of our world…

Read the entire letter here, and tell me what you think.  Is Foreman’s take on religion in America just about right?

Freedom of Choice Act

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I wrote last summer that Barack Obama would be the most liberal president on abortion to ever serve in the White House (Barack Obama on Abortion).  He said during his campaign that the first thing he would do in office is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.  There is a campaign in the works that makes a lot more sense than the typical “add you name and forward this petition” junk we usually see.  I know that I often come down hard on the Culture War people, but if you want your voice to be heard this may be the way to do it.  What follows is the text of an email I received today from a trust worthy source at the KBC (Kentucky Baptist Convention).  Continue reading →

Answering Tough Questions: Abortion

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question_mark_3dI’ve just read a blog post entitled “How to stump an anti-abortionist with one simple question.”  The question is this: If abortion were illegal, what should be done with mothers who get one?  According to the post, asking anti-abortion protesters this question draws puzzled looks and poorly thought out responses.  If Christians can’t articulate a well constructed response to this simple question, we need to work on that.  I responded thusly: Continue reading →

A Bit of Historical Perspective

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Obama InaugurationThis is not a “Hurray for our side” nor a “He’s not my President” type of rant.  There is not anything here you can’t find somewhere else.  I’m writing this post for three reasons:  1) I watched the inauguration live  2) I’m a history teacher, and 3) I blog, that’s what I do.

The presidential campaign was historic in and of itself.  It was the first time that two current senators ran against each other for the highest office in the land.  Of the last 5 presidents, 4 were first state governors.  Only the senior President Bush had just served as the V.P. for eight years.  We knew that on election night, we would either be choosing the first African American to serve as President ever, or the first woman to fill the role of Vice President. Continue reading →