One of the worst things to happen to the American political system is the emergence of the Christian religious right. Its influence on the outcome of elections is a black mark on what was once a democracy. Religions pay no tax, and their leaders often live lives of luxury while attempting to sway elections.

A Pew Research poll reveals that one of the most important characteristics of a presidential hopeful is a belief in a Christian God. However, Donald Trump continues to have a large lead in the polls. This is surprising because one of the questions in the poll was who they believed was the most religious. Donald Trump was in last place, while Ben Carson was first, just above Ted Cruz.

If you are a regular reader, you are aware that I am opposed to organized religion. I do not feel the need to seek another man’s advice about how I should live my life. The two best examples I can offer about how and why I feel this way are Carson and Cruz.

Carson has rewritten the Bible and history. He claims that the Bible condemns the LGBT community, and that homosexuals are made, not born. He doesn’t believe in science. In addition, he believes that Joseph built the pyramids as grain silos.

Cruz is a religious extremist who would violate the first amendment and establish Christianity as our nation’s religion. He has also openly admitted that he is a Christian first and an American second.

These men are not qualified to be the leader of a free nation because they would only represent a portion of our country’s people. Persons such as myself and most millennials, who are rejecting religion especially Christianity, would be ignored.

There are situations when the President of the United States must be neutral. His or her responsibility is to represent every one of our more than 320 million citizens. Religion and other personal beliefs must not be a factor in our president’s decisions or policies.

Only six percent of those polled said that they would vote for an atheist or a non-believer. They shunned the idea that attaining a high level of spirituality is far more important than belonging to a religion.

Religions have been the cause of most of the world’s wars and other atrocities. Waging war in the name of God has been common practice since the beginning of man’s time on this planet. Denying another man’s right to believe in their own God has been the source of torture, murder, and attempted genocide throughout the world by all major religions with the exception of Judaism.

Our nation is devolving into a country which is bigoted and believes that certain freedoms should be denied to those who do not agree with the majority. Our forefathers came to the ‘new land’ to avoid religious persecution. They considered the first amendment the most important part of the Constitution because it guaranteed the most important rights of all of the new nation’s people. They protected forever the right of every man and woman to practice the religion of their choice and denied the possibility that any one religion would be adopted as the faith of the nation.

There should be no distinction between candidates based on religion, or if they believe in a god at all. We need a leader who protects the Constitution and individual freedom. We need the wisdom of a man or woman who will serve the majority and not specials interests such as religion, wealth, race, or sexual preference.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Goetz Kluge

Read ‘James Turnage’ on the free Amazon Kindle App