(June 9, 2015 at 8:55 am)SteveII Wrote: So...for the past 230 years where Christians have held the majority of public offices in the US, they were a clear and present danger? In what specific way has all those collective years of believing in God been a hazard or some other detriment to our country over our entire history?
Then move to the individual politician. What benefit would a non-christian be over a Christian?
Steve,
You seem to be painting with a broad brush here. I'll assume, perhaps wrongly, that your intent is to shield believers from having their beliefs criticized.
Most Christians are reasonable in their daily lives; however, in the U.S. there is a significant number of bat-shit crazy Evangelicals that do present a danger. Can you imagine having a President and his closest advisers that actually think Jesus is coming back soon. How might you think this attitude would play when considering what to do in the Middle East?
The anti-science stance of this group also presents issues when it comes to the environment (God will take care of everything) and medical research (stem cells). As a Christian, would you really want someone in office that sincerely believes God sends natural disasters as punishment for some perceived biblical offense? If left unchecked, the religious right would be an unmitigated disaster to public education. Even today, significant resources are spent keeping them in check. They don't just try to fuck with science, but go out of their way to rewrite history that makes them uncomfortable. Need to manage a drought? Just pray.
Dominionism is also dangerous. What amuses me is that these are the same people that push laws designed to protect us from Sharia Law, laughable in itself, but would have no problem establishing a Christian theocracy.
There's not much I can do with the insanity described above. People like this cannot be reasoned with, only kept in their place. What I have a hard time with is the silence form reasonable Christians that don't have a problem with science, agree with humanist principles, and support a separation of church and state. If I were a Christian I would be hell bent on ensuring everyone understood that the lunatic fringe were just a bunch of cranks instead of politicking for the idea that ridiculous beliefs are beyond criticism.
