Witchcraft and the White House

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will debate this week. What would you ask them about their religious beliefs and why?

If Joe Biden and Sarah Palin aren't asked about religion in their upcoming debate, that would be healthy. The fact that the right wing has profited handsomely from the religious issue doesn't make it fair or even constitutional. Nor does it offset the harm they have done. The Constitution kept God out of politics in order to avoid the inflamed conflict that has mired this country since the Reagan revolution. But as long as religion does play a part, voters will keep casting ballots for their favorite brand of God. Therefore, I'd like to see the moderator for the next debate ask Sarah Palin if she gained the governorship of Alaska by exorcising witches at the behest of an African minister who prayed over her.

The YouTube video that shows that event is embarrassing enough, but my intention wouldn't be to embarrass Palin further. My intention would be to point out the absurdity and wrongness of turning religion into politics. As a Catholic, Joe Biden is entitled to hold beliefs that would disturb practicing Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists. Whatever position he takes on Jesus as savior of the world should be private. Sarah Palin should also be allowed to throw chicken bones in the privacy of her living room. But Palin, riding the crest of right-wing fundamentalism, insists that religion become a litmus test. Having done that, it's her own fault if she is exposed for her primitive beliefs. Being as far out of the mainstream as she is, the public should find out the truth.

Getting God out of the voting booth is a process, and hopefully that process took a step forward with the revelations about Palin and her belief that the Almighty awarded her the governorship as a kind of gold star for church attendance. The drawbacks of such a view are enormous, but most people don't see them.

-- If success in this world means that God loves you, then he must be punishing those who aren't successful. Poverty, for example, means you have offended God. Armed with that logic, there's no reason to pass social legislation to help the disadvantaged.
-- Since many people are unsuccessful or have various troubles, they must need conversion. As a result, enormous pressure gets put on them to believe in God. Using this logic, the Bush administration has tied aid to Africa to an ulterior motive, making the recipients accept Christianity.
-- It's clear that many people do succeed without going to church or holding strong religious beliefs. These people become alien and threatening, because they expose a weakness in your belief system. Using this logic, the God-fearing condemn atheists and liberals as Godless. They war against Communism for the same moral failing.

Once intolerance toward unbelievers becomes God's will, true believers can oppose and harm their opponents as much as they want. A loving God becomes a God of exclusion and social division. It goes without saying that we've been seeing a lot of that over the past few decades.

In the end, my innate desire to leave Sarah Palin in peace is something she wouldn't accord to others -- Communists, Muslims, atheists, probably Catholics -- if she had her way. Should she land in the White House, she'd have her way as never before. The bottom line is that we have been tolerating her ilk, including George Bush, for a long time, and yet they proudly march under the banner of intolerance. If we can back away from using God as a political propaganda, we will also see a decrease in the number of intolerant religionists who manage to reach the corridors of power.
Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

Comments

[mamacat]

Thank you Dr. Chopra for speaking out and taking sides. Thinking people cannot afford to do nothing while the right-wing ruins our lives, and the lives of generations as yet unborn.

[larry278]

What has become the USA has a lousy record in witch hunts dating from the git go. Can the witch hunts, inquisitions & similar acts till after we get a regulated financial market going & it has been running for 20 or more years. Be satisfied with an a-religious financial market & nation. We have enough to do without witch hunts. If you want to handle snakes be an adult & keep it private & don't take the kids to the snake handlings or show them videos of it.

[Zanti]

"The Constitution kept God out of politics in order to avoid the inflamed conflict that has mired this country since the Reagan revolution."

The Constitution forbids the formation of a state church--I'm not aware that it orders religion to be kept out of politics. Why would it? The U.S. is a representative democracy. Try suggesting that business, sports, education, and military interests be kept separate from government. Or out of the voting booth. Etc. Imagine the response.

As for "getting God out of the voting booth," when did the public lose the freedom to vote for whom it chooses and WHY it chooses to do so? Voting choice is a hands-off right--by definition. For whom, why, or even if we vote is none of anyone's business but our own. If the Religious Right has caused us to forget something so basic and vital, then they've accomplished wonders for their cause. With our considerable help.

[lenzorizzo]

The "no religious test" clause of the United States Constitution is found in Article VI, section 3, and states that:
" ...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Yet another portion of the Constitution that has been thrown under the bus. Try getting elected without paying at least lip service to Christianity in one form or another. Aint gonna happen.
Atheists need not apply.

[Zanti]

Yes, I've heard of the clause. It refers to the government not requiring its employees to belong to a state church. It goes with the no-state-church rule in the establishment clause.

As long as the government doesn't require such membership, that portion of the Constitution is being honored. If you're referring (as I suspect you are) to the American voting public and the conditions it places on candidates, the clause has no application. If voters want their candidates to be religious, or male, or tall, or aggressive, to wear a flag pin, or speak in broad cliches (or all of the above), then that's what the public wants. The Constitution doesn't tell people why, if, or for whom to vote. Not that I'm aware of, anyway.

The Bible and the U.S. Constitution share at least one feature in common--neither document contains a voting guide.

[Zanti]

And, if that clause referred to the voting public, then we'd have a problem. However, it clearly does not refer to them.

I'm sorry, but people have the right to vote for whom they wish and why they wish. The Constitution, like the Bible, doesn't include a voting guide. Our founders were not of a mind to control people's choices in that regard. To remake a point, we need to be careful that our response to the religious right doesn't have us sounding like the religious right. The Constitution does not provide a muzzle for those we disagree with, regardless of how legitimate our disagreements may be. That's the point.

Just as we don't wish to be censored, we shouldn't be wishing to censor others.

[NoSillyName]

Thank you, Dr. Chopra. The videos of her and the Witch Doctor need to be seen on every political site and in every publication. But where are the reports? This stuff is so much worse than anything Rev.Wright might ever have said.

[Ed Shapiro - Huffpost Blogger]

I think I have a solution. Everyone should join my new religion. It's called UNDOISM.

We have a magazine called, 'The Nowhere To Go Express.' No one reads it and when you open it there is nothing written on the pages. We send it to people who are Undo's. yet no one is on the mailing list.
Our CEO is Mr. Nobody. We are looking for more Undo's. Undoism is the fastest growing religion. yet no one wants to join.

[Janice Taylor - Huffpost Blogger]

As you so eloquently wrote, "Sarah Palin should also be allowed to throw chicken bones in the privacy of her living room. " Thank you for saying so.

[birdie2]

Sometimes I wish that the "Rapture" would just come and take these people away, then the rest of us can get busy cleaning up the mess.

[ChicagoSuz]

Sometimes, I feel badly that I find myself so critical of Palin & her beliefs... I normally take a "live and let live" approach to things. I feel better knowing that Deepak Chopra can't stay above the fray, either, and has to take a stand in this election. It's just too important to stay silent...

"Make a way... Make a way... Make a way...
... for Barack Obama!!" ;-)

[mamacat]

Paraphrasing....all that is necessary for evil to succeed is for decent people to do nothing.

This is one of those times in history when speaking out against evil and for decency are absolutely necessary. The consequences of four more years of incompetent leadership might be irreversible.

[cylindar]

Palin could be a very dangerous person in the White House and I hope for the sake of the worlds welfare she blows this debate.

[mamacat]

She didn't fall down on stage, so the right-wing pundits are saying she "won" the "debate."

Personally, I feel that she reinforced my thoughts that she is unqualified to hold any public office. I wouldn't vote for her to be on a school board, a city council, or anything else requiring common sense.

[tbone99]

Since the witch doctor has promised to exorcis our country of vipers and demons I think its a fair question to judge if he's the right man for the job.

Can he short out defibrillators?

[arizcan]

"As long as religion does play a part, voters will keep casting ballots for their favorite brand of God."

Before they do cast their "ballots for their favorite brand of God" people should take time and look into some of the beliefs these right-wing political-endorsing preachers and televangelists impress upon their flocks. Do they understand that many of them (John Hagee for example) not only promote, but pray for a war to happen in the Middle East? They do so because they hope (and pray) it will turn nuclear and bring about the final battle between God and Satan, known as the "battle of Armageddon."

They not only have no fear of a nuclear war, they actually hope and pray for one because they believe they"ll be raptured up out of here and be safe with Jesus. And they"re not concerned with radio-active fallout issues or any of that frivolous (to them) stuff either because in their beliefs all that is reserved for us sinners who"ll be left behind. They also believe that after 7 years of being raptured up they"ll return with Jesus to "rule and reign" over the whole earth forever.

How soothing will it be to have a President or Vice-President being advised by preachers who not only hope for nuclear way, but plead with "their favorite brand of God" for one?

[mommadona]

"But Palin, riding the crest of right-wing fundamentalism, insists that religion become a litmus test. Having done that, it's her own fault if she is exposed for her primitive beliefs. Being as far out of the mainstream as she is, the public should find out the truth."

EXACTLY.
No being "slightly pregnant" on this one.

[ICUP]

I think people warred against Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot because they killed millions of people, not because they were godless.

[emloy]

I'm sure he was referring to the McCarthy era when he mentioned communists. Just like the Bush administration, if you weren't with McCarthy, you were against him. And remember a lot of people didn't vote for John F. Kennedy because he was Catholic. At he time, apparently, Catholicism was not the "right brand" of God.

[ICUP]

I'd have trouble voting for a Catholic because they are loyal to a foreign power (The Vatican).

[pomawg]

Give until it hurts, If Obama loses we'll feel real pain.

DONATE http://www.barackobama.com

[Indie2008]

Maybe the MSM is under a spell. Amazingly, not long ago Mitt Romney was being grilled daily about being a member of the Morman faith.