First Freedom First has launched an advertising campaign, encouraging people to ask all the candidates questions about their views on church-state separation. TV ads are up in New Hampshire as you read this:
Here are the questions that I would ask:
- Leaders on the religious right often say that America is a “Christian Nation.” Do you agree with this statement?
- Do you think Houses of Worship should be allowed to endorse political candidates and retain their tax exempt status?
- Do you think public schools should sponsor school prayer or, as a parent, should this choice be left to me?
- Would you support a law that mandates teaching creationism in my child's public school science classes?
- Do you think my pharmacist should be allowed to deny me doctor-prescribed medications based on his or her religious beliefs?
- Will you respect the rights of those in our diverse communities of faith who deem same-gender marriage to be consistent with their religious creed?
- Should “faith-based” charities that receive public funds be allowed to discriminate against employees or applicants based on religious beliefs?
- Do you think one’s right to disbelieve in God is protected by the same laws that protect someone else’s right to believe?
- Do you think everyone's religious freedom needs to be protected by what Thomas Jefferson called "a wall of separation" between church and state?
- What should guide our policies on public health and medical research: science or religion?
So what would you ask?
Please feel free to share this with others, and urge everyone to visit the First Freedom First web site and sign the petition.
13 comments:
After considering your question carefully, I hink that I would ask for a second helping of cake.
But only if it's chocolate cake!
BAC
I think I would ask if there can be chocolate cake at the end of my life.
Thanks for showing us this, bac.
is all this kosher?
all kidding aside
i hate what religion has done to the political system of this country....
how about throwing people like Virgil Goode of Virginia out of Congress who didnt want Keith Ellison to use the Koran when sworn in - basically calling him a terrorist.
Hard to improve on your list. If it were me, I might add something like the following:
"Do you believe that the government has the right to force a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, or to restrict medical research which could cure conditions which today bring misery and death to millions, on the grounds that some religions consider an embryo with no nervous system to be the moral equivalent of a fully-developed self-aware human person?"
Infidel - support for reproductive health care is part of the First Freedom First campaign. If you have not done so, please visit the web site and sign the petition.
Dcap - I agree!
Jess - Thanks!
BAC
bac, on another site you said And to clarify a couple of points for Anonymous ... Yes, there are a lot of Christians who live in the US, but our founders were clear that we not be a "Christian" nation.
Believe what you want, but it's simple matter of numbers. The US is a Christian nation simply because most people are Christian. The statement does not imply that we are governed by Biblical law. It says only that when assessing the religious temperament of the country, it is obviously Christian.
They understood the importance of government remaining neutral regarding religion, so that everyone would be free to worship as they choose, or not to worship at all.
It's doubtful you can find another country in the world where more religions are practiced.
The IRS has indicated it intends to crack down on any house of worship that violates the "no partisan politicking" regulations.
The IRS makes the same statement every year. I'm sure the backlog of 501C3 fraud cases is miles long and only the most blatant offenders are rounded up.
In some small communities there is only one pharmacy. That was the case in the town I grew up in. I don't think anyone should be denied access to legal prescription drugs because of the religious beliefs of the pharmacist.
Again, you can believe what you want, but every pharmacy, whether a local one-store shop or Rite Aid, can stock whatever it wants. Period. There's always mail-order, which is always the cheapest way to fill a prescription.
There are houses of worship that currently perform "marriage" ceremonies for same-sex couples in their congregations. If you support separation of church and state, then those marriages deserve the same legal recognition as marriages of opposite sex couples.
Gay unions are legal. Gay "marriage" is not. The religious institution does not confer legality upon a ritual. The legality is conferred by the government. If you want the church to have the legal power to write marriage laws, then you really want the church and state to marry.
No institution that receives tax-payer dollars should be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion. If the Salvation Army is raising all its own funds, yes -- they are free to be as bigoted as they like. But when the work a group is doing is funded with my tax dollars, they should NOT be allowed to discriminate against me.
The Salvation Army benefits from a favorable tax status owing to its charitable endeavors. Thus, it gets money from the government just as any recognized house of worship does.
Religion has been creeping into the public sphere for a very long time. It's up to us to prevent any further erosion of the separation of church and state.
You should read H.L. Mencken. I'm sure Mark Twain commented on religion and the US government too. Religion has had a prominent role in US politics since the founding of the nation. And critics have always said the same thing generation after generation. But the voters respond. You're stuck.
The first veto issued by Bush was to veto expanded stem cell research. He did it based on his personal religious beliefs. I think that is wrong. The bill had bipartisan support, and is supported by a majority of Americans. I don't think religion should ever be the basis for decisions regarding science.
The Bush veto of stem-cell research is meaningless. That action did nothing more than take the government out of the picture. Nothing stops private industry from investing heavily in stem-cell research and earning billions in profits if things work out. That's generally how business should work. Once the government gets involved, the trouble starts.
Your position on government involvement in civil society is all over the block. You're better off by excluding or barring the government rather than making endless exceptions to the basic rule.
US industry will earn billions from stem-cell opportunities if they truly exist. Getting the government involved won't help. There's no industry in the country that is better as a result of government interference. The government's only job is to enforce a level playing field.
BAC I just posted the Klugman video.
To response to Anonymous yet again ... The United States is NOT a "Christian Nation" ... we are a nation with more than 2000 different faith traditions, and our founders intended for the government to be neutral regarding religion. That is probably why more people in this country attend a worship service, than do people who live in countries with state-endorsed religion.
Regarding the IRS, this is the first election cycle where they actually released a statement before hand to warn 501(c)(3) organizations of their intent to monitor them. Hopefully houses of worship, and other non-profit groups, got the message.
The question is: "Do you think my pharmacist should be allowed to deny me doctor-prescribed medications based on his or her religious beliefs?" In my opinion the only correct answer to this is "no". If a candidate answered "yes", I would have a real problem supporting that candidate. It's something I would like to know about them BEFORE casting my vote.
If you honestly believe that a group, such as the Salvation Army, should be allowed to discriminate with tax-payer dollars then we clearly are not of the same mind on this issue. You have a right to your opinion, as I do to mine. But again, the question here is what do candidates think? And shouldn't we know the answers to these questions before casting our votes.
On religion in the public sphere, if you take a look at history most of it happened without input from the general public. When the public has an opportunity to weigh in, it generally says "no". Both "In God We Trust" and "under God" were added without public debate. The Bush administration started handing out faith-based initiative funds by executive order, because they have not been able to get a faith-based bill out of Congress. And every time the people vote on tax-payer funded school vouchers, which mostly benefit religious schools, the public says "no". A minority religious point of view, that of the religious right, has had far too much influence on our elected officials over the past 30 years. It's well past time for that to come to an end.
I think the figure is around 85% of all medical research is conducted by the NIH, which is controlled by the government. Right now potential life-saving, or at least life-enhancing, medical treatment is being denied because of the religious beliefs of one person. Before we elected another president, we need to find out where they stand on an issue that is supported by more than 70% of the American people.
BAC
If it's acceptable to declare the US "a Christian nation" just because 80% (or thereabouts) of the population is Christian, would it be acceptable to declare us "a white nation" because 70% of Americans are white?
There's a difference between recognizing the simple fact of the existence of a statistical majority, and proclaiming that we are "an X nation". The latter clearly implies (1) that those who are X are "more American" than those who are non-X, more authentically members of the nation, and (2) that that's the way things ought to be.
If somebody announced that the US was "a white nation", everybody would immediately understand that this was offensive and unacceptable. I don't see the "Christian nation" claim to be any different.
We're not a "Christian nation". We're a secular nation which happens to have a Christian majority.
BAC -- heading over to FFF site.
Infidel - Thanks!
BAC
BAC, I just want you to know that I went over the FFF site and posted these questions, the video of James Whitmore and a few of my own questions. Anonymous is a laissez-faire fool of the Ayn Rand school who thinks that the only function government should serve is to pick up trash and keep the peace. In other words a corporate oligarchy should effectively run the country.
Thanks Spartacus! You are wonderful!!
BAC
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