A baptist minister for president? Why that's as funny as an actor for president. Oops.
I will admit in public that I have no ambition to see a theologian serve as president. While there is no exacting comparison to religious islamic leaders in say, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc, to those that would serve in the United States, the prospect of one scares the wits out of me. Notice I did not say hell out of me. Yes, I am an atheist. But before you go, "Well, there you have it!", let me say that it has nothing to do with a belief in G_d or not. It has to do with the way people of faith tend to look at those either without it or of a different faith. At the very least, all atheists are alike but one cannot say that about all religious, G_d loving or G_d fearing people. (G_d=respect for your beliefs). People of G_d seem to possess self-righteousness because they follow a religious tenet and dogma that makes them that way by default. I don't think they can help it. At least I have never meet any devout believers who don't look at me with some sort of pity or disdain or a combination of both. Even my own brother whom I would never have thought would embrace the concept of G_d does so as to affirm the very reason for his/our existence, that without it, there can be no meaning. So be it.
But with the rhetoric of religion and the belief in G_D comes the inevitable,
"I get my wisdom and guidance from G_D". And that is the scary part. How many people have been convicted of violent crimes and declared that G_d made them do it? Don't we find these people really sick? And given the fact that history is replete with scriptural stories of G_d talking to man, man talking and praying to G_d, isn't it a bit disingenuous to be condemning people who believe G_d is talking to them? Isn't that the fervent hope and manifestation of faith of all G_d loving beings for G_d to select them for speaking directly to? If they get their wisdom and guidance from G_d, just how did they get it? I would like to ask anyone running for president if G_D has spoken to them directly. How would you feel about that if their answer was unequivocally yes? What if it was no?
Be it as it may that most laws in western society are derived in principle from biblical and religious doctrine, our government can not be administered from a position of theology. I don't mind if leaders believe in G_d; actually, I really do, but I am tolerant enough for now to accept this as the norm in this society; I just don't want to feel that the basis for their important decisions stem from conversations with G_d or church leaders or reference to the holy scripture. I/we have already been the recipient of a great dose of this from G. W. Bush.
Mike Huckabee frightens me for these reasons. He pardons on advice of minions of the church. What ever qualities he may possess outside of this-wait, there are no qualities outside of this. He is defined by his religion. He is inescapably bound at the hip; it is the most fundamental part of his being that he is a man of G_d and faith and church. The closer we move to a theocracy, the more trouble we will get ourselves into. The sooner we wake up to the fact that critical and logical thinking will help us dig out of the quagmires we are in, the sooner we can all share a world of peace and joy.
