[Rhodes22-list] Jesusland.

[Robert Skinner]

Rummy -

Couldn't agree more about the problems that come 
up when we combine religion with politics.

Part of the background of our current "family values"
vs. secular considerations may come from our failure
to distinguish between moral issues and ethical ones.

Morals are a product of a person's dialogue with his
deity of choice - and there is more than one such
acknowledged in this country.

Ethics are shared in a society without regard to
religion - or the society falls apart.  When the 
society decides to enforce morals, it becomes a
theocracy, and people's rights are submerged in the
regulations laid down by the priest class, specially
when it is indistinguishable from the ruling class.

I believe that the "family values" issues raised in
the last election are totally irrelevant to our
government, and were used in the most unscrupulous 
way to obscure the real issues confronting our
government.

/Robert Skinner
-----------------------------------------------
R22RumRunner at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 11/21/2004 2:06:47 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> flybrad at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> http://realclearpolitics.com/Presidential_04/2004_County_Results_Final.html
> I get it now, those people that didn't vote for Bush, according to the red
> and blue map, are less religious than those that did.
> This country is in a sad state of affairs. What happens to the people that
> are either in the red or blue, voted for their candidate, but aren't religious?
>  Where do we fit in? Personally, I don't think religion has any place in
> politics. Something about the separation of church and state. Our founding
> father's were very smart in writing this into our constitution. Putting the two
> together only muddies the waters even more than they already are. Religion or
> actions taken in the name of religion have done more harm to the planet than
> any  other "just" cause. Let the priests, rabbi's, mullah's(sp) and ministers
> tend their flocks, but leave the rest of us alone.
> 
> Rummy