The Gaytheist Agenda

I have to wonder what the response to this will be.

WASHINGTON - July 23 - The Secular Coalition wrote to Democratic National Convention (DNC) CEO Leah Daughtry on July 2nd to convey questions and concerns about a worship event she’s organizing for the DNC. …..

Our letter:

July 2, 2008

Leah Daughtry
Chief Executive Officer
Democratic National Convention Committee, Inc.
1560 Broadway, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80202

Dear Rev. Daughtry:

I am very concerned about the Interfaith Gathering at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

This event is described as a “unity” event to stress the “big tent” nature of the Democratic Party; however, I have received complaints by people who identify as atheist and humanist who feel that this event excludes them as full participants in the convention.

Is this event open to Democrats who do not hold a god-belief? I assume your answer is yes, but I would be very interested to know how you plan to make the nontheist community feel welcomed. Without an inclusive plan you will make nontheistic Americans feel like second-class citizens at the convention.

If you have not considered this issue, I would be very interested in talking with you or the coordinator of this event to offer suggestions on how our community could be included. I can be reached at 202-299-1091 or by e-mail.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Ron Millar
Associate Director

I wouldn’t be holding my breath if I were Mr. Millar. At least not for a positive response.

After throwing LGBTs under the bus in favor of the black evangelical vote last October, then continuing to associate with the “Ex-Gay” contingent even after that (at least until the media caught wind of it) Obama now thinks he can win our votes with a few ads in LGBT publications.

Does he use the ads to apologize for putting an “Ex-Gay” bigot on the stage to spew homophobic bile to the cheers of other bigots just to win himself votes and campaign cash? No, he doesn’t. Does he use them to tell us that (assuming he becomes President) he will work to implement laws that will give us the Human and Civil Rights we’ve been striving for all these years? No, he doesn’t. So what exactly does he say in these ads?

What’s with the “tear”? Is that Visine, glycerin or are you lamenting the fact that you really, really screwed up and just aren’t going to pull out of it no matter how you back-pedal? No matter what it is I find it appalling that you’d put on such a show for us, particularly after you and your supporters trashed Hillary Clinton for crying on the campaign trail.

While we have come a long way since the STONEWALL RIOTS in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do.

What’s this “we” crap? You’re not L,G,B or T. Nor did you participate in the Stonewall Riots in 1969. You weren’t even in the country at the time; you were in Indonesia. So where does this “we” stuff come in?

Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us.

Those seeking to divide us. Would that include homophobic evangelicals such as the ones you threw us under the bus for? The homophobic bigots you used to garner their votes? The preacher you continued to use after all that even though you knew he ran an “Ex-Gay” ministry?

But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans, it’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with DIGNITY AND RESPECT.

What? The nation is supposedly going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating us with dignity and respect? How about giving us the equality that we should rightfully have in the first place? The equality that should never have been withheld from us? When is the nation going to fulfill its promise to us?

And have you ever considered that if it weren’t for the pandering people like you do to religious bigots, we wouldn’t have to be “given” dignity and respect by them. We would already have it. They are the ones who withhold it based on their arbitrary notions that we are not worthy of it, then they turn around and act as if we need to earn it back by behaving or refusing to behave in ways that they prescribe. To hell with that!

Barack Obama, your ads are far too little and way too late. There’s not a snowball’s chance in Yuma, AZ that I or any of the LGBTs I know will be swayed by those pathetic attempts to woo us. You should have saved your money or used it elsewhere. We are simply not that stupid.

Addendum. I’ve already received a comment on this post. maddiejoan says:

How fitting that Obama would invoke Stonewall in this ad, considering that his involvement with “ex-gay movement” bigots has dialed the debate on LGBT rights back to pre-1969 “Homosexuality is a sin” versus “Homosexuiality is not a sin” levels.
Disgusting pandering little man. If he’s the nominee, I’ll be sitting my queer ass at home on election day.

Well, Maddie, if he’s the nominee I’ll either be sitting home just like you, or I’ll be writing in another name on the ballot. I’ll be damned if Obama is getting this lesbian’s vote.

Peg says:

From Barack Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” regarding gay marriage.

“In years hence, I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history. I
don’t believe such doubts make me a bad Christian.”

Sheesh! Just what we freakin’ need! Someone hiding behind his Christianity as an
excuse to deny equality for all.

Thanks for a great post!

And thank you, Peg! You’re right about Obama. He’s just another fool using his religious beliefs to deny equality for all. Funny how he worries more about being a “bad Christian” than a bad human being. Apparently offending his chosen deity and dogma are more unsettling to him than the harm he is causing to his fellow Americans.

Here is yet another argument for keeping religion and religious questions far away from campaigns. Just listen to the completely asinine rationales these people give to justify their votes.

These are the people who want to determine who will be running our nation? Not a single fact among them yet they’re ready to run to the polls. But then that would describe the majority of the RRRW, now, wouldn’t it?

Is it any wonder the country is as screwed up as it is?

 

Radfringe graciously allowed me to reprint this here:

It’s looking more and more like the repubs will be going with McCain. Speculation is high that McCain’s sidekick will be Huckabee.

Huckabee would bring in the fundies who are reluctant about voting for McCain. And you can bet with the huckster for a sidekick - there will be a lot of rhetoric about family values.

in the past, the family values blather is something the dems have failed to effectively counteract

the repubs have wrapped it up in a warm fuzzy blanket, it sounds good, looks good - but beyond that their actions speak differently.

Kerry mentioned it once or twice back in 2004 that I know of and Clinton touched on it briefly in one speech I saw on C-Span

and I keep bringing it up over and over again

IT’S NOT FAMILY VALUES - IT’S VALUING FAMILIES

I’ve even sent a few e-mails off to the campaigns - explaining what I mean by this, but I fear they were just put in some round file. If you work on Clinton or Obama’s campaign and have some contacts up the ‘food chain’, and agree with this perhaps you would pass it along.

here’s the premise:

reframe it as “VALUING FAMILIES”
show how the family value rhetoric is just that - rhetoric period. that for all the family value talk, nothing the repubs have done show any concern for the health of families, and tend to destroy families by favoring corporations and other big wigs. that all the blather about family values are just empty words. Words do not put food on the table, nor give people jobs, nor do they provide healthcare or education.

- the way to value families is to have a healthCARE system that puts people before profits. A healthCARE system which ensures the medications needed are available, affordable and safe

- the way to value families is to enact legislation that protects families from predatory lending practices and other financial schemes which puts their jobs and welfare at risk

- the way to value families is to have an education system which educates

- the way to value families is to have an emergency management system that is able to respond quickly and effectively. to help families in the most dire time of need (think katrina and the recent tornado outbreak)

- the way to value families is to have a veterans system which helps the the troops returning from war.

- the way to value families is to have a social security system the helps families with with their senior members

- the way to value families is to have a forward looking environmental policy to provide clean air, clean water, safe food for the current and future generation

- the way to value families is to encourage job creation here at home and not reward companies who ship jobs overseas.

- the way to value families is to have a foreign policy which focuses on peace and prosperity, not on war and destruction.

- the way to value families is to have a domestic policy that embraces all families.

- the way to value families is to have a policy that is open to science and research, not one that discourages or rewrites findings.

- the way to value families is to have a justice system based on justice not partisan politics.

- the way to value families is to respect and follow the Constitution of the United States - not by looking for loopholes or weasling around it through the use of executive priviledge or signing statements.

AMERICA VALUES FAMILIES

(too numerous to list, but after each of these points - list the legislation the repubs have defeated)

As the caucuses and primaries continue and “Super Tuesday” draws ever closer the remaining presidential candidates continue to debate, rally and woo us in an attempt to win our votes. Along the way they pick up endorsements from newspapers, celebrities, fellow politicians and others. Ted and Caroline Kennedy have endorsed Barack Obama. Bobby Kennedy Jr. and NY Daily News endorsed Hillary Clinton. Chuck Norris endorsed Mike Huckabee. The New York Post endorsed John McCain. And so on, and so on, and so on.

On a message board I sometimes visit the cries will go out from time to time–”So and so endorsed my candidate!”. This will be followed by supporters of that candidate rushing to express their adulation, and detractors attempting to tear down both the candidate and the endorser. The same is true for the opposite side. This bizarre dance is repeated each time a new endorsement is announced.

I’m afraid I don’t quite grasp the fascination with endorsements myself. When I decide for whom to vote I do it based on the candidates platform, merits, behaviors and other qualifications. I want to know what they are going to do for me, the country and the world, and how. How many friends they have on their MySpace page, so to speak, doesn’t factor into the equation.

Are people afraid to think for themselves, or to let others think for themselves? Is that what we’ve come to–that we need to rely on the endorsements of others to determine who we vote for? Will we let celebrities, newspapers and the like make our decisions for us?

I’m open to the possibility that I’m missing something here, of course, and I’m willing to entertain discussion on the matter.

Allegedly the two RRRW groups have produced biased voters guides that clearly advocate for Mike Huckabee in violation of their tax-exempt status. I must say I’m astounded at the news.

The guides, posted on the groups’ Web sites, list the Republican candidates and their alleged stands on a range of issues, such as support for a human life amendment, “traditional marriage,” “business freedom” and “moral education” and opposition to “gay pride.” Only Huckabee is assigned a “yes” stance on all of the issues.

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “These guides are not voter education, they’re partisan propaganda. Tax-exempt organizations are barred by federal law from partisan electioneering.”

AU’s Lynn said the organizations seem to have given the candidates no opportunity to respond to these issues and instead assigned stances based on the organizations’ own “research” and subjective analysis.

Footnotes supposedly documenting the candidates’ stances are often irrelevant or old. In several cases, the guides reference sources from 1994 and 1996.

The American Family Association, a Religious Right group based in Tupelo, Miss., is best known for its opposition to gay rights and risqué television programming. Its founder and chairman, the Rev. Donald Wildmon, has personally endorsed Huckabee for president.

WallBuilders, a Religious Right group based in Aledo, Texas, is known for spreading “Christian nation” revisionist historical materials. Its founder and president, David Barton, has appeared at pastors’ briefings that featured Huckabee as a speaker and were intended to promote his candidacy, according to news reports.

…..

“I am particularly outraged that these voter guides indicate that they are suitable for use in churches and other tax-exempt organizations,” Lynn continued. “In fact, they are not. Any church that distributes these biased guides is risking its tax exemption and casting aside its integrity.”

I’m beginning to think it might kill the RRRW if they had to obey the 9th Commandment for even one day. They seem to be unwilling or unable to do so. (Let’s not even get into all of the other violations they routinely commit). Then they claim they’re the party of “moral values”. Their audacity is overwhelming.

May AU get their request fulfilled, and the IRS stiffly penalize both AFA and Wallbuilders. It’s high time these organizations and others that abuse their tax exempt status to spread lies and harm others get what is coming to them.

Article VI, section 3 of the United States Constitution states that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Presumably this means that no federal employee, be they elected or appointed, can be required to adhere to any belief, doctrine or religion.

While that may be the true in the letter of the law, it’s often not the case in practice–particularly with the presidential elections.
Every four years we have a non-stop parade of candidates who try to out Christian one another. Who can be seen attending the most churches and speaking from the pulpits? Who has the strongest relationship with their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Who can infuse their speeches with the greatest number of Christian references?

There is, of course, the more disturbing element to this. LGBT citizens are denigrated and candidates promise to restrict their rights or eradicate them completely. Those of faiths other than Christianity and the non-religious are made to feel like second (or even third) class citizens. More and more promises are made to the faithful while others are left in the dust lest the faithful be “offended”.

Not all of the candidates go unscathed. While some gladly throw people under the political bus for votes, others do it less willingly. They must jump through all the right hoops to please the voting public, much of which is Christian, and a minority of which is comprised of the vocal and demanding RRRW. It is a deep-rooted prejudice among many such individuals that non-Christians, and non-believers in particular, are untrustworthy. Accordingly the potential for any such candidate to win an election is next to impossible. Indeed, if you are not a Christian, and preferably the right type of Christian, you’d best not even consider running for the office of president. Just look at what Mitt Romney has gone through because he is a Mormon, for example.

It is a vicious circle. Certain voters force the candidates to behave as they do, and the candidates act in a way that is harmful to other voters. Cycle after cycle the dance goes on, and it only seems to be getting worse.

Take, for example, this page on Barack Obama’s Website.

Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian

….

Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs Issued A Statement Explaining That “Senator Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, Was Not Raised As A Muslim, And Is A Committed Christian.” “Obama’s campaign aides have emphasized his strong Christian beliefs and downplayed any Islamic connection. The Illinois senator was raised ‘in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother,’ his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in January after false reports began circulating that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Koranic school, as a child. ‘To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago,’ Gibbs’ Jan. 24 statement said.”

…..

Obama “Beckoning” Felt At Trinity United Church Of Christ, “Submitted Myself To His Will, And Dedicated Myself To Discovering His Truth And Carrying Out His Works.” Obama said, “So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.”

Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim. Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.

…..

OBAMA IS A PRACTICING CHRISTIAN

Obama Has Been A Member Of Trinity United Church Of Christ For Twenty Years. Monroe Anderson stands up for Reverend Wright’s ministry, “For the past two decades, Barack Obama has been a faithful member of the congregation at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.”

Obama Was Baptized And Attends Church Once a Week When He is Able. In the Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote, “I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.” In 2004, he “attend[ed] the 11 a.m. Sunday service at Trinity in the Brainerd neighborhood every week — or at least as many weeks as he is able. His pastor, Wright, has become a close confidant.” When asked about his decision to be baptized, Obama said “Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me,” he said of his walk down the aisle of the Trinity United Church of Christ. “I submitted myself to his will and dedicated myself to discovering his truth.”

Obama Reads The Bible, Finds Time to Pray On Campaign Trail. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Obama says he reads the Bible, though not as regularly as he’d like, now that he’s on the campaign trail. But he does find time to pray. ‘It’s not formal, me getting on my knees,’ he says. ‘I think I have an ongoing conversation with God… I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why I am doing it.’”

How strong the denials that Obama is or ever has been a Muslim. They even go so far as to deny Obama has ever prayed in a mosque. It’s as if being a Muslim is something dirty, depraved and shameful. Now I’m a mere atheist, but I can only imagine how offensive that page might be to Muslims who might come across it.

Then, of course, we learn how very devout a Christian Obama is. Because in order to prove that he’s not a Muslim he must proclaim his Christian street cred in every manner possible. Hence the myriad sources documenting in minute detail his conversion to Christianity, his weekly church attendance, his swearing into office with his personal Bible, his campaign trail prayers, etc, etc.

Mitt Romney, as I noted before, came under fire because he is a Mormon rather than a Christian. His website makes no reference to his religion that I could find. Better not to mention it, of course, because anything but Christianity is a no-no. In fact competitor Mike Huckabee attacked him with the Jesus and Satan are brothers according to Mormon theology claim not so long ago. Romney found very early that the less he said about his faith the better, and went to great lengths to assure voters that he would not impose “any one faith” on people should he become president. (Funny how Christian candidates never make any such promise, nor do they feel compelled to.) He then turned around and proclaimed that freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Translation: I won’t impose my faith on people, but I will impose faith on them.

Constitutionally there is no religious test for public office, and that should be enforced both officially and unofficially. Religion should not be part of a candidates race for office in any way, shape or form. Only when candidates are judged solely on their platforms will the races be truly equitable.

At least according to this LTTE in the Salt Lake (UT) Tribune.

President-wise, I would vote today for an intelligent, compassionate, articulate, well-read, honest and brave atheist or agnostic over any one of the more-Christian-than-thou bunch pandering shamelessly in the ring right now.
Professions, assertions and declarations of “faith” belong at home and in the church/synagogue/mosque/temple/treehouse/cave of one’s choice. In government, I want common sense and practicality, neither of which is the exclusive preserve of any religion.
However, I have “faith” that no such individual will emerge to save us from our own self-righteousness.

Jackie McCowen-Rose
Roy

I don’t care about a politician’s religion or lack thereof. I just want them to keep it out of politics, political decisions and my life. Sadly too few of them seem to be able to do that so maybe it’s time for an atheist president.

What Religion’s Blind Stranglehold on America Is Doing to Our Democracy

It’s a presidential campaign like no other. The candidates have been falling all over each other in their rush to declare the depth and sincerity of their religious faith. The pundits have been just as eager to raise questions that seem obvious and important: Should we let religious beliefs influence the making of law and public policy? If so, in what way and to what extent? Those questions, however, assume that candidates bring the subject of faith into the political arena largely to justify — or turn up the heat under — their policy positions. In fact, faith talk often has little to do with candidates’ stands on the issues. There’s something else going on here.

Look at the TV ad that brought Mike Huckabee out of obscurity in Iowa, the one that identified him as a “Christian Leader” who proclaims: “Faith doesn’t just influence me. It really defines me.” That ad did indeed mention a couple of actual political issues — the usual suspects, abortion and gay marriage — but only in passing. Then Huckabee followed up with a red sweater-themed Christmas ad that actively encouraged voters to ignore the issues. We’re all tired of politics, the kindly pastor indicated. Let’s just drop all the policy stuff and talk about Christmas — and Christ.

Ads like his aren’t meant to argue policy. They aim to create an image — in this case, of a good Christian with a steady moral compass who sticks to his principles. At a deeper level, faith-talk ads work hard to turn the candidate — whatever candidate — into a bulwark of solidity, a symbol of certainty; their goal is to offer assurance that the basic rules for living remain fixed, objective truths, as true as religion.

…..

Mitt Romney was courting the evangelical-swinging-toward-Huckabee vote when he, too, went out of his way to link religion with moral absolutes in his big Iowa speech on faith. Our “common creed of moral convictions? the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet” turned out, utterly unsurprisingly, to be none other than religious soil: “We believe that every single human being is a child of God? liberty is a gift of God.” No doubts allowed here.

…..

When religious language enters the political arena in this way, as an end in itself, it always sends the same symbolic message: Yes, Virginia (or Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina) there are absolute values, universal truths that can never change. You are not adrift in a sea of moral chaos. Elect me and you’re sure to have a fixed mooring to hold you and your community fast forever.

…..

So, when it comes to religion and politics, here’s the most critical question: Should we turn the political arena into a stage to dramatize our quest for moral certainty? The simple answer is no — for lots of reasons.

For starters, it’s a direct threat to democracy. The essence of our system is that we, the people, get to choose our values. We don’t discover them inscribed in the cosmos. So everything must be open to question, to debate, and therefore to change. In a democracy, there should be no fixed truth except that everyone has the right to offer a new view — and to change his or her mind. It’s a process whose outcome should never be predictable, a process without end. A claim to absolute truth — any absolute truth — stops that process.

Read the rest at the link. You won’t be sorry.

Most Americans have noticed that a presidential campaign is underway. All but one candidate is Christian, with the remaining candidate being a devout Mormon. We have been inundated with speeches and, dare I say, sermons from the candidates professing how deep and abiding their faith is. Particularly from the GOP side the candidates sound more like they’re running for preacher than president. Candidates visit churches frequently while on the campaign trail to stroke the egos of congregations and stump for votes.

Barack Obama, for example, has bent over backwards to woo Christian evangelicals to vote for him. Particularly in light of accusations that he is a Muslim owing to his middle name (Hussein) and Muslim lineage he has been hawking the fact that he is very much a Christian. The latest in his “Vote for me because I’m a really, really, really good Christian just like you are” campaign is this:

The brochure being handed out in South Carolina shows a picture of the candidate with his hands together and eyes closed. In large letters, it reads “ANSWERING THE CALL.”

Inside, voters learn of a candidate who was “CALLED TO CHRIST” and even larger letters is a “COMMITTED CHRISTIAN” and is quoted saying, “I believe in the power of prayer.”

Barack Obama’s campaign in South Carolina is targeting black voters, and one of the ways he’s doing it is appealing to a connection based on shared religious faith. Obama, a Christian who attends a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago, has talked about his faith in Iowa and other states, as well, but his campaign literature is particularly focused on his religion here, where he depicts himself, in one picture, before a pulpit, and, in another, praying with an African American man.

Whoa. He sounds really super Christiany. I guess I’ll just have to vote for him.

Hillary Clinton does her share as well. In November she proudly announced that she had the backing of 60 pastors. Apparently the endorsements of clergy are better than laypersons because clergy would never do or say anything unethical, you know. Clinton also felt it necessary to advertise her church attendance. See, going to church is important, but other people knowing you go is critical. How else will they know you’re a Good Christian?

John Edwards, too, wants you to know how central his faith is to his life, and therefore how it will guide his presidency. He went on CBN in November to attest to his faithiness:

Edwards: Well, my faith is hugely important to every aspect of my life and it has been for a long time. I’m not going to lie to people. I was born and raised in the Southern Baptist church, baptized when I was young. I went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. It was the center of our lives. My father was the deacon in the Baptist church.

…..

I lost my son 1996 — and then of course more recently Elizabeth’s development of cancer and recurrence of her cancer. The truth is I don’t know how I could have ever gotten through these struggles plus the day-to-day stresses of being a candidate for president without my relationship with the Lord. It’s hugely important in every part of my life

The GOP candidates are not only trying to out-Christian one another (even Romney), they’re making infinite promises as to how they’ll impose RRRW Christian morality on all of Amurka–whether the rest of us like it or not. Says Mittens:

I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Marriage is fundamentally an institution about the development and nurturing of children. Every child deserves a mom and a dad. We must recognize the traditional union of a man and a woman as the bedrock of the family in our society. If our courts are determined to undermine this principle, then we have no choice but to defend it through a constitutional amendment.I support an amendment to prevent activist judges from misreading the Constitution to force same-sex marriage on any state.

I oppose civil unions between same sex partners. Government should encourage the formation of families and the nurturing of children, and I believe that this is best accomplished with a mom and a dad. Every child deserves a mother and a father.

Then there’s John McCain, who hits several of the right buttons–if you’re a RRRWer, that is.

Watching Beliefnet’s exclusive John McCain video, God-o-Meter finds it perplexing that the Arizona senator has long been a scourge of the Religious Right. After all, McCain told Beliefnet that the “Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation,” that he’s in talks with his pastor about undergoing a full-immersion baptism to become a full-blown evangelical, and that the prospect a Muslim presidential candidate makes him queasy because he wants someone who shares a “solid grounding in my faith.” That certainly checks some big boxes on the Christian Right’s presidential prerequisite list. (Not to mention that it offers a stark contrast to some of former Christian Right golden boy Fred Thompson’s recent stumbles on matters religious.)

Of course he’s small potatoes compared to Mike Huckabee, the Baptist Preacher turned Arkansas Governor turned presidential candidate.

“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards,” Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Can you say Dominionist ? I knew you could!

So we have the candidates jumping through hoops, speechifying, sermonizing, wearing their belief on their sleeves and doing everything in their power to prove to the faithful that they’re the right believer for the job. But the job is the presidency of the United States, not pastor, reverend, priest or pope. So why is there so much emphasis on religion? What ever happened to “There shall be no religious test for public office”? And why do candidates not only spend so much time visiting churches, but feel compelled to, lest they “lose” the religious vote? Are religious people that needy and fragile. Do they really need that much pandering and ego-stroking? What is this insane need they have for people to tell them their beliefs are right, true and good? And why do politicians–particularly the GOPers–always have to promise the nation will be run according to the RRRW Christians rules to make them happy? Never mind; I already know the answer to those questions.

I’ll make it easy for you, candidates. You don’t need to give me flowery speeches or monologues about your faith. I don’t want to hear about your fabulous gay friend or the one who is the most ethical person you know–and she’s even an atheist. I don’t need to be validated by you nor do you need to be validated by me . I don’t want any form of song and dance. Save the pandering for the believers.

All I want for myself is equal human and civil rights. ENDA, Marriage Equality, the Hate Crimes Act. Enforce Separation of Church and State, “no religious test for public office” and equal-access laws. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. You’ll also save a lot of time, effort and money on the campaign trail.

Now what I want for everyone else–that’s going to take a bit more time, effort and money.