The right way for people of faith to practice politics

By Sam Fulwood III
Grio.com

Within a one-mile radius of my house, there are more places to pray than there are Starbucks coffee shops. I know this because I tried to count each of them.
After an hour’s walk around my neighborhood, I lost count of the many churches (in a multitude of denominations), synagogues (no less than five in one two-block stretch), temples, and mosques. That doesn’t even include the storefront places that advertise religious services of some sort. There were so many places to receive a blessing that I lost count after several dozen.
That’s when I turned my attention to finding a cup of joe. It was easy — there are only three Starbucks locations within walking distance of my house. My failed experiment proved something that our political leaders would do well to understand. Our nation’s founders knew what they were doing by not establishing a state religion. A nation as diverse as ours can never settle on a single set of faith principles to cover us all in glory. As a society, America embraces all faith traditions, while as individuals many of us pray in spirit-filled fellowships of the like-minded.
Our nation doesn’t lack religious faith. What we lack is uniformity of religious expression. There are black Mormons, Latino evangelicals, Asian Protestants, and Muslims of all hues and races. Religion thrives in the fertile diversity of American culture. This is a good thing.
Unfortunately, some political and religious leaders fail to understand or appreciate the value in the blooming of faith traditions within a secular government. For them, religion is a one-size-fits-all edict, or a blunt weapon used to bludgeon anyone who disagrees with their narrow and exclusive views.
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