Imagine if a vice presidential candidate said “I am a Muslim first, a liberal second, and a democrat third”. Think about that. Pence says “I’m a Christian first, a conservative second, and Republican third”. I have a problem with anyone putting their religion first. I don’t want to live under Christian biblical law any more than I want to live under Sharia law. These people scare me.
The separation of Church of State is not a mythical construct. It’s not something conjured up by Liberals to prevent Christians from enjoying the freedom to observe their religion. It’s a real thing, something whose importance was understood and embraced by our Founding Fathers- many of whom were Christians but feared the sort of religious tyranny that drove the Puritans from England to these shores. They recognized the admixture of religion and politics to be potentially toxic and an invitation to tyranny; 240 years down the road that’s as true as it ever was.
The truly sad thing is that Christianity, on its own merits, isn’t a bad thing, nor is it a recipe for tyranny or oppression. In the hands of zealots and demagogues, though, it’s become a tool for enforcing conformity of belief and action. One’s faith- or lack thereof- is used as a yardstick to judge personal worthiness. Atheists- those of us who considers ourselves to be good with God- are deemed “less than,” prevented by law in several states from holding public office.
(That such a ban is blatantly unconstitutional seems to matter not at all to those who believe “freedom OF religion” doesn’t mean “freedom FROM (their) religion.”)
That those who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ have strayed far from the teachings of their Lord and Savior is distressing enough. That these same holier-than-thou zealots believe Jesus to be a (White) Conservative Republican is a degree of arrogance and self-righteous I can’t begin to process. (Remember, it’s only tyranny when someone is doing it to you. When you’re doing it to them, it’s “allowing God into the public square.”)
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence may be a Christian, a Conservative, and a Republican, but to conflate those things is un-Christian, un-American, and runs completely counter to virtually everything classical Conservatism stands for. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the politics of the American Taliban has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s about power, control, and the conviction that your narrow moral/theological/ideological framework should by rights be the law of the land. Period.
I’m not certain it gets much more dishonest, disingenuous, and pathetic than that.
