Religion and the race for president: A south Georgia pastor’s take
The Rev. Michael Ruffin, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald – that’s down between Warner Robins and Valdosta – has posted an excellent, delicate piece on religion and the coming presidential election.
Read the entire article here – this is only a taste:
In the mid-1970s I asked my late, great father, who would these days be considered something akin to a Blue Dog Democrat, for whom he had voted in the 1960 presidential election. He looked sheepish as he said, “I’m not ashamed that I voted for Nixon, but I am ashamed of why; I was afraid if Kennedy got elected the Pope would be running the country.”
I find it interesting, given the Cold War in which we were engaged at the time, that my father and others did not find Nixon’s Quaker religious affiliation equally or even more troubling, given that faith’s belief in pacifism.
Of course, President Nixon was not a pacifist, was he?
And President Kennedy was not, when it came to his policies, beholden to the Vatican, was he?
As my father and many others have shown, voters tend to pay close attention to the religious affiliations—even though those affiliations may or may not reveal much about the candidates’ actual beliefs—of some candidates and not so much attention to those of other candidates. Put simply, we tend to analyze closely the religion of those candidates whom we oppose on other grounds in the hope that we can find further reason to oppose them.
It will be interesting to see if the left-leaning media examines Gov. Romney’s Mormonism as closely as the right-leaning media examined Sen. Obama’s Christianity.
As I said, there’s more. Go read it. We’ll wait til you get back.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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71 comments Add your comment
GaBlue
April 30th, 2012
1:26 am
Excuse me, “Hard working taxpayer,” but how exactly does the democratic party take YOUR money? When they call you asking for donations, you know it’s okay for you to say “No,” don’t you?
D’OH!
Hard working taxpayer
April 30th, 2012
1:33 am
I’m talking about the IRS and our “welfare President”! The democratic party loves to create victims for votes.
Hard working taxpayer
April 30th, 2012
1:40 am
That’s what I thought!
Bill from Atlanta
April 30th, 2012
4:05 am
SKE, in your initial posts you took positions against “right wingers” and “fringe groups”. You also took the position supporting Obama. Hence, it was easy for me to label you based on this. The real issue is the role of government policy in DC. Most of the voting population in this country do not realize the dangers of the powers of the Federal Government. This has been caused by both democrat and republican liberals for decades. For me, I will always support a more conservate candidate for office because by his very philosophy “label” he would be more in line with the Constitution. Who cares about religion?? I want to know how an individual will govern. I don’t want him to create laws and agencies that stifle freedoms of the citizenry.
Hotdog I deal with people all the time. I particularly enjoy taking positions that sometimes are not popular with the uneducated masses who base their beliefs on what they have been taught by public education, and what they were told to think by the media on the seven o clock news. You are right though, I am very closed minded in regards to what the government is or isn’t supposed to do.
Jeff Sexton
April 30th, 2012
4:37 am
The Mormon and the “Wright Christian”/ “Muslim” (he is neither, he is Christian) are NOT your only two choices…
There IS another option: A (non-practicing) Lutheran: former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.
Briefly, from his bio:
“Governor Johnson, who has been referred to as the ‘most fiscally conservative Governor’ in the country, was the Republican Governor of New Mexico from 1995-2003.
A successful businessman before running for office in 1994, Gov. Johnson started a door-to-door handyman business to help pay his way through college. Twenty years later, he had grown the firm into one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico with over 1,000 employees. Not surprisingly, Governor Johnson brings a distinctly business-like mentality to governing, believing that decisions should be made based on cost-benefit analysis rather than strict ideology.”
http://www.GaryJohnson2012.com
SKE
April 30th, 2012
5:44 am
@Centrist, it is soooooooo obvious that you are distorted into thinking that faith is not necessary in politics in which I absolutely disagree. Everything you interpret is seen through a dark prism of hell. The darkness in your soul needs to be informed of a loving savior who only wants to lift up mankind. I’m through talking with you.
MiltonMan
April 30th, 2012
6:29 am
“In all honesty, that dog won’t hunt.”
Yes because Obama ate him.
TiredOfIt
April 30th, 2012
7:27 am
So the Romney camp is starting their new flip-flop that Romney was for the GM and Chrysler bail-outs. And the republicans accused John Kerry of flip-flopping. Romney wrote the book.
Sobelle
April 30th, 2012
7:41 am
Let’s see…Mormons don’t believe in taking anything into their bodies that will harm them, i.e., coffee, tea (caffeine), alcohol (beer, wine, liquor), cigarettes, cigars (nicotine),street drugs (meth, coke, pot, etc.). They believe Christ visited America, thus the golden tablets from which mormonism was born. Now…the Baptist don’t believe in dancing (man/woman gets too close), playing cards (gambling is sinful), divorce (we only have one spouse recognized by God) and remarriage unless the spouse was an alcoholic, abuser, etc. and only then could you divorce, but not remarry. The list goes on. Catholics believe in Mother Mary and pray to her. They believe in confession, so do so and then go sin again. They don’t believe in divorce and remarriage. They think their clergy are perfect and should be revered and then ignore the ones who prey on children for sexual satisfaction. The Jehovah Witnesses believe they are the only ones going to heaven and if you don’t join them, you’re doomed. What else I have no idea because I refused to learn about them. Jewish people don’t believe in Christ. They drink, smoke, dance, play cards, and do just about anything they want to do. There is no Christianity in that religion. And the list just goes on and on with Muslims thinking they are the true religion and all others are infidels. Sooo, the radicals want to eliminate all other religions by killing them which God has said “Thou shalt not kill…” Now, people what do we do when one of these religious people runs for POTUS? If we can’t find much wrong with their politics, we attack their religion. Wow. And here I thought the reason the Pilgrims came here was to escape from a country not willing to let them worship in their own way and enjoy other freedoms.
Centrist
April 30th, 2012
8:21 am
From my dark prism of Hell, I understand that MOST of existing humanity does NOT believe in their being a Son of God. But there is a large segment who feel that condemns such people to Hell. A smaller segment feel even babies or children who die before being baptized are condemned to Hell.
These are current beliefs of minorities of mankind. Past beliefs had gods of the Sun, Moon, Oceans, human feelings, etc. – but they have mostly fallen out of favor. Astrology still plays a part for some.
Sobelle above points out many differences in religious conceptions above – but there are millions of thinking, voting Americans who base their politics on things other than religion.
honested
April 30th, 2012
8:28 am
The place for any religion in politics is non-existent.
SKE
April 30th, 2012
8:29 am
@Centrist again……..it is so obvious that you have not had any teaching/preaching in your frequent past. You muse on hopeless ideations that don’t inspire belief of an omniscient Creator.
SKE
April 30th, 2012
8:36 am
@Bill from Atlanta……you still are trite and uninteresting. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
ld
April 30th, 2012
8:37 am
In Georgia, it is very likely that an atheist would be shouted down and not even heard on the issues; in fact, this is probably true across the nation.
We, as a nation, will have matured a great deal more when an atheist is electable because people will hear and are open to the possibility that they agree with his position on the issues.
ld
April 30th, 2012
8:40 am
[RGB: mankind evolved from primal ooze; however, as you make clear, some men have evolved less mentally and emotionally than others.]
government
April 30th, 2012
8:45 am
PRESS RELEASE FROM CITIZENS UNITED NATIONAL NEWS:
WASHINGTON, DC; “I, government, have become CORPORATION and will lead my “people” in a stampede to crush the “huddled masses” of humanity out of existence or, at least, out of sight and out of mind.”
ld
April 30th, 2012
8:50 am
[BillfromAtlanta: sometimes a "label" can be very misleading.]
ld
April 30th, 2012
8:51 am
[Jeff: Sadly, too little too late.]
TimeOut
April 30th, 2012
1:14 pm
I wish I had a clue for whom to vote in this election. While some rich folk came by the wealth through honest hard work, there are many who are just as parasitic as those milking the system through our social welfare devices. Sometimes, it seems to be an overwhelming task to discern which candidate possesses character, capability, and all of those other characteristics that are needed to run a nation of over 300 million people. If I have to live in some kind of hierarchical society, I suppose I would choose a meritocracy. Yet, many who attend our Ivy League schools did not achieve this privilege. It was scripted into their lives by others. Rockefeller and others like him may have achieved quite a bit, but he often did so on the backs of others. I want a capable leader who can’t be bought. I think that may be impossible to find.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 30th, 2012
1:48 pm
@SKE – My God isn’t a Contard who condemns people to hell for wearing the wrong color blue.
I pity your God because he has people working for him.
I think the person going to hell isn’t “Centrist” its you.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 30th, 2012
1:49 pm
@Bill from Atlanta – The constitution is a piece of paper that ‘compromised’ with the south by saying that slaves are only 3/5s of a person and that women are not intelligent enough to vote.
Now we know why Republicans are initiating the War on Women they claim doesn’t exist.