Thomas Jefferson must be really pissed!

If you haven’t heard the latest crap from Virginia, Jefferson’s home state, then get ready. It seems in order to make it as difficult as possible in Virginia for a woman to get an abortion, the republican legislature passed a bill that, among other things, required women to undergo a “transvaginal  ultrasound” procedure, without their consent or the consent of doctors. In other words to really harass women the state wants to stick a probe up their vagina to see… what?

The abortion issue aside, what galls me is that the republicans scream to high heaven to get the government out of their daily affairs but yet don’t seem to have any problem with the government looking into vaginas. This is state sponsored RAPE! And why all this is happening? It’s the religious right who wants to interject full blown Christianity into our government. They want to create a theocracy, full stop. They seemed to think this is what the country needs but they conveniently forget to ask the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Atheists (who cares about them?), and others. What is important is that they get their way, damn everyone else.

There was a reason that Thomas Jefferson wanted this wall of separation between church and state. He saw how having church authorities meddling in government affairs made a mess of things and didn’t want that here in America. I’m afraid we are going backwards towards the dark ages. Tom, I’m with you. I’m pissed!

“But no religious test”

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

The United States Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 3. Emphasis added.

The GOP is famous for beating up on Obama for “shredding the constitution”. Meanwhile the current crop of GOP candidates tout their own religiosity to make sure they pass the religion test with the far right faithful.

Despite what the constitution says, there is a religious test that presidential candidates must pass if they are Republican. You hear them talk about their beliefs and their faith, yelling about whether or not another candidate is a “true Christian’ (what ever that is) or they are the better Christian for the job. Franklin Graham, heir to the Billy Graham empire, hints that Obama is Christian in name only. Of course Romney, being Mormon, might not be a Christian although Franklin didn’t say it directly and I’m sure he’s not happy with Romney’s Mormonism.

Then Rick Santorum talks about Obama and say that he doesn’t think Obama has the correct theology. It’s not the theology of the Bible, Santorum says. Begs the question of what is the correct theology? Maybe there is one but as an atheist I’m sure there isn’t any. To paraphrase sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein “Theology is like looking for a black cat in a cellar at midnight that isn’t there”.

But the main point is that we need to get religion out of politics, it is toxic and it will only cause more problems than it will solve. If you haven’t heard the old joke about when three Baptists get together, one will form a new church. So which candidate has the right religion? Also you already know that “real Americans” don’t trust those “Muslims” because they are ALL terrorists and not Christian. Then there are the Jews. It goes on and on.

Also in the Constitution is this little item... “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Congress isn’t establishing a religion but the GOP certainly wants to! Think about it.

“Compelling Catholics”

There was this letter to the editor in today’s paper under the banner “Obama’s contempt for religion evident”. The writer complained that Obama and his supporters “have a contempt for religion, morality and the U.S. Constitution”. But the kicker  comment was this… “the government is compelling Catholics to violate their consciences or to suffer the consequences”.

Compelling Catholics? This whole issue is so stupid! As it has been in the past, health insurance companies help pay for contraception IF the insured wants it. The folks that want to COMPEL Catholics are those guys in funny hats in Rome. And how well has that worked? Not well at all. As been mentioned before, 98% of Catholic women ignore the church’s edict on contraception. No one in government is forcing anyone to get or use contraception.

Why aren’t the bishops up in arms with the pharmacies or grocery store that have condoms on their shelves? Is the pharmacy compelling men to use the condom? If a married Catholic man uses a condom when he has sex with his wife, who is to blame?

I’m upset that when these issues come to light, it seems that men are the ones who seem to want to dictate things. Sean Hannity had a “panel” to discuss this issue. The “panel” was made up of priests, bishops, rabbis and others and all were men. No women! A recent congressional panel was called on this issue and all the witnesses were men! No women! WTF?

The republicans don’t seem to get that most people don’t really care about this issue. What they care about is the economy and jobs. If you are out of work and don’t have health insurance, who cares about the pill or the condom? They are using this issue to try and beat up on Obama. They figure eventually they’ll find something that will stick. It ain’t this! Think about it.

Wrong theology–which one?

Rick Santorum, the current darling of the Right, was quoted as saying that “Obama’s agenda was ‘about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology,’ he added. He went on the Sunday news circuit to back pedal somewhat and said while Obama believes ‘man is here to serve the Earth,’ he [Santorum] believes ‘Earth is not the objective. Man is the objective.”’

He goes on to say, “I was talking about the radical environmentalists. This idea that man is here to serve the Earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. I think that is a phony ideal.”

He’s going back somewhat to the 19th century idea of “manifest destiny” and some other religious views that don’t concern themselves with what happens to the planet. He seems to side with those who know that Jesus will come back soon and rescue us all, so who cares about the Earth now?

At the same time he acknowledges that Obama is a Christian and he seems to be OK with that. However he forgets that many Protestants look upon Catholics (such as Santorum) and say that they are not true Christians with their allegiance to the Pope and Mary and saints, etc. To some Baptists, an Atheist is better than a Catholic.

This is what happens when you start involving religion in politics. I remember when John Kennedy had to address his Catholic faith. He gave a speech in which he said that basically his faith was a private matter and that as president he wouldn’t let the church dictate his actions. It was a different time then. I don’t think Nixon would have helped his campaign if he jumped on Kennedy’s religion like Santorum brings up Obama’s religion. But today, thanks to the nutters on the right, a person’s religion is a big thing. In fact if seems now you have to pass a religious test to get elected, despite what the constitution say about that. Look at the 2008 election where Obama and McCain had to go to Rick Warren (amongst other things they had to do) to get his blessing on their religiousness.

We are on a dangerous road now where religion plays such a large role in politics. We have essentially a state religion (Christianity) and every politician is judge against it. Is there anyway we can get Thomas Jefferson back to helps reinforce the wall between church and state? Seems like there is a hole you could drive a truck through.