Church and State…
John Edwards said during an interview with Beliefnet.com the following:
“I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs,” Edwards told the site. “I think he would be appalled, actually.”
He added that although he doesn’t want teachers to lead prayers in public schools, children should have time “to pray for themselves, to themselves, I think is not only OK, I think it’s a good thing.”
This caused quite a riot, to say the least. If you want to read the reaction of some conservative bloggers, go here.
I will only say this: I believe that politicians should not involve religion in their speeches at all. Whether they’re conservatives or liberal or centrists, I don’t care: if one favors certain policies one should be able to explain and defend those policies based on reason (not on religion).
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2 Responses to “Church and State…”
Duh, everyone knows that Jesus favored the rich, loved the mixing of politics and money and religion, and had no compassion at all for the underclass. This “New Testament” is liberal propaganda to cover up the TRUTH!
Using religion to push a particular political ideology–whether liberal or conservative–is a bad idea (IMHO).
There’s a difference between living one’s own life in accordance with Jesus’s teachings versus advocating that the government force others to live their lives in accordance with Jesus’s teachings. Jesus praised some things as being good and condemned other things as being evil, but he never advocated that his followers lobby their government to enact laws forcing others to follow Jesus’s beliefs.
If Edwards believes that we, as a country, aren’t doing enough to live up to Jesus’s teachings, he’s more than welcome to this belief. But if he’s using religion to push a fiscally progressive agenda, that’s really no different than conservatives using religion to push a socially conservative agenda.