Semidi

Bo Gardiner — displeased by a quote from Obama — shares my thoughts on religion in politics:

I don’t want our government employees to view themselves as “soldiers” of God against evil.

I don’t want my president defining evil within the framework of his Christian religion.

I don’t want my president hesitating to reduce evil and suffering in the world because he thinks it’s not his job, but God’s.

Our secular government must be comfortable defining evil in secular terms, such as human suffering, and must feel fully empowered to reduce it without awaiting orders from a deity. There are secular definitions of evil that are universal to humanity that transcend religion, that we agree to as a society. A leader must facilitate and implement that agreement, not await voices in his head.

It is blindingly unconstitutional for our government to act as an army of soldiers of God using a religious sect’s definition of evil.

And I’ll go Bo one better: Religious fundamentalists are the enemy. Period.

Doesn’t matter if a handful claim to be Democrats. The simple fact is that the basis of their worldview is incompatible with reality, with morality, and with ethicality; their sense of right and wrong is derived from ancient collections of fables and various interpretations of them, and these fables simply do not hold the answers that a 21st century society needs in order to evolve.