If Church and State really were separate in this country, this whole Jeremiah Wright thing would never have meant anything. Though I suppose the MSM would have had to find some other racist issue with which to destroy Obama.
But it is still a good lesson for those of us who have just about had it with religion up to our eyeballs.
Having been raised a Catholic I have certainly had my fill of organized religion. Sometimes I, like many others before me, wonder if - for all the good that religion undoubtedly does - it doesn't actually do more harm, especially when it gets inserted into governance and politics.
We learned yesterday, for instance, that 31 of 53 underage girls taken from that FLDS compound in Texas have either been pregnant or are currently pregnant. One just had a baby yesterday, while under the protection of the authorities. And who forced these pregancies on these underage girls (legally it is force when the girls are minors)? Old men, to satisfy their own lust with nubile young bodies, no matter how much they rationalize it as being a religious act. This is a horrendous violation of our laws, and hiding behind the guise of religion should not enable these dirty old men to get away with what they have been getting away with for too many years.
And then, of course, there are all those depraved priests in my church who abused boys and girls and then hid behind the black skirts of their bishops who only sent them to new parishes where they could prey on new young bodies. Sure there are some good and decent priests, but the number of pedophiles in this church is mind boggling and will remain a stain on this religion as deep as the Inquisition.
And now this attempt to use a black militant preacher, who is apparently something of a chameleon, against one of the most talented politicians in decades, just because the politician spent some Sundays in his congregation, though diasagreeing with him on many occasions as most of us have done in our own churches, shows how damaging religion can be in the public arena.
Religious people, including ministers and priests, may be no more evil or depraved than the rest of the population, you may say, but there is one difference. When you hide behind your religion, or your Roman collar or your clerical garb, or even your title of "Reverend" (which I refuse to use ever again in this blog), society gives you a pass, a kind of immunity, or benefit of the doubt because you are supposed to have god on your side.
Bull shit!
Religion is NOT a godly institution and should be given neither the benefit of the doubt nor tax breaks. Religion is a human institution like any other, subject to the same imperfections and even evil intentions of its members and practitioners.
Tax exempt status should be removed from all religions immediately and all practitioners of religion must be held accountable for all the laws they break, punished to the full extent of that law when they violate those laws. The statute of limitations should end for child sexual abuse, especially for those in positions of power over children in churches, and the topic of religion should be kept out of our political discourse. I don't care what religion you practice as long as you adhere to the laws of our land and will uphold our Constitution.
That alone must be the test for political office, not where or if you go to church, nor who your pastor is, unless you have participated with him in violations of the law.
Religion may help some people, but it can also hurt people, and with more power and more freedom apparently than any other type of institution. It is time to reign it in and make it behave according to the laws we create in a democratic society.
And it is time to remove it from our political campaigns.
Amen.
