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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> Perhaps one day we Americans will return to what I believe was Thomas
>  Jefferson's position on such things, basically to neither ask nor 
> offer personal religious thinking. This of course requires tolerance
>  and respect. It is hard to be optimistic.


There are exceptions.
In the founding of this country, to quote Voltaire, "in the best of all
possible worlds",  there is a separation of church and state.  In this
country, religious thinking SHOULD not even enter into the minds of the
majority when it comes to choosing a president.
I have often wondered how tolerant Jefferson himself would have been had
his slaves practiced voodoo or some animistic pagan or tribal religion
or had his gardener been a practicing Muslim.  Jefferson's bailiwick
really, I think, was Christianity and Judaism, nothing more.  I hope I
am wrong about that.
Islam is both a religion and a form of government.  Fundamentally, it is
a mesh of the two.  Therefore, one would have to REALLY think twice
about voting a practicing Muslim into a powerful, potentially law
generating position.
In America, or at least I should stick to what I know and say "In the
South", black churches are often places where the lines of politics and
religion also cross.  Black churches can be very powerful places with
their own political agenda, and often, whites are not welcome, and
Hispanics less welcome still.  In multiracial churches, the message is
more subdued and less confrontational, but every once in a while, one
can glimpse a different perspective.   I personally would categorize
Wright as falling somewhere in the middle on the 'radical' scale of
black ministry. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is a
political entity.  Martin Luther King DID have a REV. in front of his
name.  We cannot deny those truths either.  To be fair, visit any white
Protestant church before or after the sermon and you will hear politics,
too, but usually, you don't hear it from the pulpit.  White ministers
seem to be less politically active than black ministers.  I guess that
is expected as usually the majority *is* less vocal.
But anyway, yeah, in theory, in a Jeffersonian world, one's religious
affiliation should not matter.  In 2008, in this global world, we have
to ask ourselves if it does.  How will Joe in Indonesia feel about
President Obama vs. President Clinton vs. President McCain.  Does it
matter?  If Joe likes our president, is that a good thing?  Would Indo
Joe respect a woman more or less than a black man or a white man? In
Jefferson's world, Indo Joe would not even have known the name of the
president of the US, let alone his religious or personal views, nor
would he have cared.  In today's world, Indo Joe cares enough to
possibly become a terrorist if he thinks he can affect change.  In
today's world, the president must be a leader of the United States
first, and secondly, he or she must be strong enough to earn Indo Joe's
respect.  Jefferson never really had to deal with leaders who were so
different than himself.

Bev


--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky