Restless City Nights

In a recent article I was reading on the NPR website Barbara Bradley Hagerty wrote about James Dobson’s response to a 2006 Obama speech in an article titled “Evangelical Leader Blasts 2006 Obama Speech” (see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91853800.). This is nothing new to me. For as long as I have been paying attention (the 2000 election, come on… I’m only 23!) religious leaders have been weighing in on presidential candidates. And for as long as I have been paying attention, it seems that their opinions and endorsements really matter (at least on the Conservative side). What irritates me here is that Dobson, a Conservative leader, is mad at two things he really has no right to be mad about. The first is Obama inciting liberal Christians to vote and not to “cede the ground to religious conservatives” (Hagerty). The second thing Dobson is flustered over is Obama’s comparison of him to Al Sharpton (a Christian as well, but with a more liberal view). As a result, Dobson has begun campaigning against Obama.

I wouldn’t have a problem with this situation if, say, Obama was taking a radically opposite stance on a religious topic. However, Obama is merely trying to motivate Christian voters of all degrees to vote in the election. He certainly has a right and an obligation to do this as both an American and a candidate for public office. I can see where Dobson might not agree with Obama’s inclusion of liberal Christians, but is that really something to get that angry over considering this is a secular election for a secular office?

Religion in politics has become increasingly complicated as our country has grown. I believe that on a fundamental level having a solid religious background can make you a stronger candidate and an overall better person by instilling some personal qualities that non-religious folks might not have (not to say all religious people have these traits, just that they ought to based on the fundamentals of most religions). The qualities of which I speak are: Patience, understanding, forgiveness, diplomacy, empathy etc. They also have a similar set of rules by which they live (I’m thinking of somthing like the Ten Commandments or the Five Pillars of Islam or some similar groundwork for personal conduct). Politicians, it seems have a great need for these basics of conduct as evidenced in our daily headlines. That is another topic for another post, however.

Overall, I just want to state that religion in politics is an overstressed issue. Given the crooks that have surfaced in our government over the last eight years, I don’t think we could do much worse. I find it especially ironic that there was a fairly big deal made about Bush becoming a “born again” Christian. Certainly if he were so some of the events of the past eight years might have played out differently. Instead of worrying about a candidate encouraging certain groups to vote, we should be focused on things that matter. Things like our economy, the homeless or hungry in America, the national debt (seriously, how can we be taken seriously by the rest of the world when we owe so much money and the value of our dollar is dropping? Would you trust a guy who is trillions of dollars in debt? What would you automatically assume about him? Think about it.) and so many other domestic worries. The sad part is that small squabbles over minor differences and minor slights lead to one candidate or the other getting drummed out of the race. I sincerely hope that Americans will get their heads on straight and stop listening to what the media feeds us when it comes to this election. It is way past time for us to think for ourselves.