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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (620)	1/12/2001 2:57:10 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

As for bringing religion to office, I think the percentage of people who believe in God in this country is at least 80%. The chances of having someone appointed to office who ISN'T religious is probably like finding someone who never heard of OJ Simpson There's a big difference between being religious and making a public spectacle of your faith. Ashcroft seems to treat his religion as a qualification for office, and I'm not particularly comfortable with that. you need to come to a prayer breakfast some time I'll pass on that one. Masochism is not among my favored perversions.

To: Ilaine who wrote (620)	1/12/2001 11:06:30 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 82486

Oh, I don't know, according to this story off the AP wire, Ashcroft seems nutty enough Ashcroft Invites God on Decisions nytimes.com Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft says he tries to ``invite God's presence'' while making crucial decisions and compares his political victories and defeats to resurrections and crucifixions. The former Missouri governor also wrote that he was anointed before each of his gubernatorial terms and on the evening before he was sworn into the U.S. Senate a friend brought out Crisco cooking oil for anointing when no holy oil could be found. In his 1998 book, ``Lessons From A Father To His Son,'' the son of a pastor makes clear his deep devotion to Christianity and details how it has shaped his lengthy public career -- from his view on race to his staunch opposition to abortion and support for the death penalty. Sounds like an interesting book. Cheers, Dan.

To: Ilaine who wrote (620)	1/12/2001 12:54:16 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

I am not a member of the Religious Right. I don't believe in prayer in schools. I believe in separation of church and state. I believe in religious tolerance, even for evangelical Christians I absolutely concur. As for bringing religion to office, I think the percentage of people who believe in God in this country is at least 80%. I've seen surveys that showed the same thing. But that 80% covers a lot of territory from those who attend daily services to those who believe in some cosmic force that created the universe and then departed to parts unknown. It also includes those who look for messages in chicken blood and goat entrails and those who just say they believe in god because of the social stigma of admitting they don't. It's hard to know how many people believe what. The ones I have a hard time with are the ones who have really nutty beliefs When I was a freshman in college in 1960, my roommate was Methodist and was dating a Presbyterian. They seemed a great couple but they broke it off because they didn't want a mixed marriage. I had been raised Catholic and in my world, people were either Catholic, Protestant, or Jew. A mixed marriage was when there was intermarriage between two of the three. It's all a matter of perspective. Later I began to consider Catholics and Protestants both Christians, as opposed to Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. Now I just think in terms of fundamentalists and others. Again, it's a matter of perspective. Religious people often think of their beliefs as the true voice of god and the beliefs of (some) others as "nutty." But superstition is superstition. Anointing oneself with holy oil may be more widely accepted than reading tea leaves or sticking pins in dolls, but it's still a manifestation of superstition. Surely you can understand that superstition in people who hold high public office is off-putting to many people. Particularly when many who share that particular superstition are frequently seen trying to foist it on the rest of us. Forget off-putting. Downright spooky. Ashcroft was an assistant attorney general, so if he has a practice of letting his religious beliefs affect his legal obligations, that should come out in the hearings. I really wish Dubya had picked someone less controversial for that important Cabinet post, but I'm willing to watch the hearings and see what he has to say. Karen