I was so disappointed last night when both Hillary and Barack participated in what was called a “faith forum” on CNN and both declared that they, as president, would do the “will of god”. The mess that religion makes in governments is so clear world wide that it scares me to see it becoming the basis for this campaign.
Perhaps it was seeing the animated film “Persepolis” yesterday afternoon which shows how religion ate up the freedom of the Iranian people after their overthrow of the Shah and made it an example of a country where ethics and human values come last. Perhaps it was thinking about how much emphasis is being placed on the visit of Pope Benedict to Washington DC and the political influence it will have from the President meeting the plane on down. Or maybe it was just the fact that our Constitution has been ignored for the separation of church and state and made secondary to the belief structures of so many evangelistic ministers.
Whatever.
I have yet to hear a politician say he or she would support the rights of atheists. I have yet to see an opening of a Congressional session (or a Convention of political debates for that matter) open with a statement of ethics from an atheist as opposed to a religious invocation.
When Obama said he would maintain the Office of Faith Based Initiatives last night I cringed. When Hillary tied herself to the small-town middle class and its reliance on god (over government, I guess) I felt like barfing.
That McCain had the sense to stay out of last night’s god fest did not help my views of my own party.
So I would like to take this opportunity to use this blog as a forum for the candidates to state their support of the atheists and agnostics among us… to make a statement of support for non-believers… to tell us whether they will put the Constitution above the Bible… to say if they will invite an atheist to make a statement of ethics and morality not tied to any religion at their inauguration. Anything they send me will be printed uncut here.
e-mail me at btchakir@mac.com
I don’t expect any responses.
