Unhappily religion and politics are a required mix in the U.S.

The notion that societies should separate their religions from their politics has been around awhile. For the most part, in countries around the world, it seems that more and more less and less of their citizens are having a problem with secularism.

 

That is not the case in the United States and the 2012 election that country is engaged in is a case in point. Faith is mentioned repeatedly by all candidates and for a candidate to win any government position in the 2012 U.S. election without proclaiming long and hard how deeply rooted their faith is would be a virtual impossibility. Further, it seems that the ‘right’ kind of faith, the Christian faith, is required.  

Politics and Religion: Election mix in U.S. 

 

What other countries, in particular in the West such as Canada and the U.K., are now embracing is that politics can, and should be, conducted without the interference of an institutionalized God. It’s a simple enough notion that, again, is hardly new, and it doesn’t suggest a lack of respect for faith in a God or a lack of respect for any particular religion. It acknowledges the obvious, that one can believe or not believe, worship or not worship, adhere to one faith or another, and still be an effective and moral human, and politician. 

 

Why do you so many in the U.S., often a leader in the world in accepting new manners of looking at how we co-exist, need their faith entrenched in their political candidates? It may be a secular country officially but not so in practice. Wanting others to respect your beliefs is one thing, but needing them to believe the same thing is another. America joins a list of other countries, many Muslim, as we’ve recently seen dramatic evidence of in riots surrounding the mock film which cruelly criticizes their faith, that can be said to be intolerant of people of other faiths.