How Politics poisons Religion
Once a religious group decides it is in bed with a political
party or political leader, it must accept all the ways that party or person
differs with that religion’s values. For instance, in terms of Evangelical
Christian and the Republican Party:
- · Christianity talks about how one should help the poor and that being rich makes it hard to enter heaven. Republican values empower the rich to get richer and are not just indifferent but outright hostile toward efforts to help the poor. Christians who support the Republican party and its candidates are forced to overlook this.
- · The death penalty is an obvious problem for Christians. But the death penalty is part of the Republican party platform. Christians who support the Republican party and its candidates are forced to overlook this.
- · The Republican party does not believe in funding universal healthcare. Reagan famously pulled funding for state mental health facilities resulting in the hordes of mentally ill homeless people we see on the streets of major cities today. Prior to Reagan, those people would have been off the streets and in mental health hospitals getting the treatment they need. There is zero doubt where any of the Abrahamic based religions, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, stand on this. According to each of those religions we should be helping the sick. And frankly, the atheistic/agnostic/humanist position is in complete agreement. It is horrible for a society capable of doing so not to help the sick. Christians who support the Republican party and its candidates are forced to overlook this.
- · Abortion. This is poisoning in both directions. So, Christians are anti-abortion. But when Republican politicians like Walker and Trump have either had one or pressured their paramours to get one, Christians must overlook it and support the candidate anyway. Usually you hear the pathetic justification “Oh, they prayed for forgiveness so it’s OK” as in “Abortion is bad! Abortion is bad! Walker and Trump pressured someone to get one? Oh, well, I am sure they prayed and were forgiven.” Of course, that consideration would not be given to a Democratic candidate in the same position, even if they somehow provided proof that they prayed for forgiveness.
How in turn Religion Poisons Politics
- · Since Reagan brought the evangelical Christians into the Republican Party, you have had a host of candidates like Walker with questionable credentials and questionable conservatism, but they call themselves “Christians”, so they get nominations instead of someone who is smarter and better represents conservative values. It’s no surprise that the death of intellectual conservatism started with Reagan. You no longer have Republicans in the party like Jack Kemp or William F Buckley. The smartest Republican of the last 20-30 years, Jon Huntsman Jr, a Conservative with a track record of economic and foreign policy experience and talent, got no traction at all in the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination process. Why, because he isn’t a religious zealot who wears his religion on his sleeves. These polls of party identification and education and religion over time show what has happened: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/02/in-changing-u-s-electorate-race-and-education-remain-stark-dividing-lines/ the Republican party has become more religious and less educated and the Democratic party has become less religious and more educated.
- · Abortion. Conservatism, particularly the Libertarian side of it would say that Government should keep its laws off human bodies and their decisions. You see them saying that when it comes to vaccines and masks (along with a heavy dose of science denialism and anti-intellectualism). But Republicans are forced to support laws against their values when it comes to abortion to placate the Christians they accepted into the party.
Those are just the examples that come to me off the top of my head without a lot of research. I am sure we can come up with more. This is all an example of how power corrupts. The saying goes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I would say that religion and politics are two sources of power that when combined corrupt each other absolutely.
