There is nothing wrong with being whatever you want to be. Obviously, though, being a member of a minority group when running for a position that will represent the population as a whole might hurt your chances. I’m not saying it’s fair or not fair, but in a democratic election that sometimes happens. That is life.

Religious affiliations are the least of my concerns when choosing a candidate for office. The way I look at it, if you need to invoke the name of a deity to make planning and zoning decisions, you probably aren’t cut out for the job.

Religion and politics are hopelessly intertwined in our culture. The dream of enlightened rationality in governance died with the Framers, I’m afraid. Still, it could be a heck of a lot worse.

And Hagan doesn’t disappoint. Her reaction was to hold a press conference and try to ‘out-God’ Liddy Dole. Sunday school teacher cred is trotted out alongside stood her preacher and together we got the threat of a lawsuit to make them stop calling her an atheist. We are left to wonder, as Kate so aptly puts it - “perhaps after the election it’ll be safe to say such things..”

What a sad state of affairs…

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with questioning someone’s religious beliefs except if they’re jewish. To questioning judaism is to question God and these are God’s Chosen. As well it is forbidden to question Israel or its actions. These are taboo. This forum is completely designed to do one thing: TO GET PEOPLE TO EXPRESS WHAT “IS” WRONG WITH EVERY RELIGION “EXCEPT” for JUDAISM.

First, to show perspective, I am identified as “christian”, even “catholic”. So what I am saying is not coming from a minority view but a majority (at least as far as labeling, we won’t go into my true blended theology). The sad thing is how many people cry out “we are a Christian nation.” That’s just factually wrong. It’s not the majority of people that’s the issue. It’s the law. “In God we trust” represents a respect to a higher power. The founding fathers were Universalists, Christians, Deists, even non-believers. They understood that something was greater than us, but that meant many things to many people. Thus, the religious freedom of the First Amendment, especially the “establishment clause” - that Congress shall establish NO religion. Including Christianity. We are not a “Christian Nation”…we are a nation that believes and is founded on something greater than ourselves, even if that is merely the unity of each other. The fact that the terriorists seem to be largely Muslim isn’t the issue. We neither sponsor nor restrict any religion. Besides, all you xenophobes, spend some time studying Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca, Islam. They all preach peace, love, and understanding. And many of the statements of Christianity can be found almost verbatum in the others.

I hate the phrase “true American” because it is scuh code for so many things, but I will use it for this. “True Americans” protect another’s individual freedom. That is the one belief we need to have in common.

As Henny Youngman used to say, “I thought about becoming an atheist. I gave it up when I heard they don’t have holidays”.

What is wrong is that the Republicans,the party of the fear mongers,had turned the Muslims into there poster child of fear and destruction-They get these nervous people shaking in there boots and than promised that the pro-Republican milatary war machine will protect them.

Well, this is the old trick of differentiation. Every candidate wants to connect with the voters on a personal level these days. Most of the nation reports having Christian beliefs, so its natural (not right though) for advocates to try and disconnect opponents from the personal lives of the voters. It works the same way with the “rich man” syndrome. Most of these candidates have a load of money, they’re in better situations than we are. However, each one wants to paint the other as the out of touch rich guy while portraying themselves as you (just with a lot of money). And no one ever wants to try and defend having money by saying not that there is anything wrong with that.

To a further extent, muslim extremism and aethism have crept into the everday lives of mainstream America now. Obvioulsy 9/11 touched everyones lives in some way and though its not fair the Muslim faith is still intrinsically tied to that radical culture. And that isn’t helpful. With regard to atheism you have a very obnoxious and vocal portion that wants to deride people of faith. Take for example Bill Mahers film that mocks religion. That behavior may not speak for mainstream aethists but its whats out there in the marketplace for voters to see. So you have an electorate of Christians that are annoyed by the likes of Bill Maher and are afraid of the terrorism of Islamic extremists and its hard for those small sectors not to infilitrate the larger bodies of Muslim faith and Atheism.

Look and Evangeliscal Christians. It happens to them too. You get a handful of Westboro type hateful churches or seemingly nutty speaking in tongues Baptist Churhcs and suddenly Evangelicals as a whole are classified as gay haters or insane.

It applied to politics too. Look at JFK and the questions of the Pope running the US because of Kennedys Catholicism.

It’s unfortunate but people on both sides of the aisle make up their minds about what they think a particular faith means and they take that with them. Right now small sections of Muslims and Atheists are not helping the situation.

Hard to belived-a racist anti-Obama website link on the same page as this blog.Free press at it’s best!!

When JFK was running for President he asked people not to include his faith in their decision. I think we now base our decisions too much on the emotion. My students say things like, “I like Obama,” or “Sarah Palin is just like me.” While these things are true, they are poor things to base a vote on by themselves. While I think it is vital for our leaders to make ethical and moral decisions, I do not feel that a specific religion is required.