Including religion in political decisions?

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If I'm not mistaken, George W. Bush said during his second election; "Jesus is my favorite philosopher." I'm a little puzzled by this quote, because regardless of your political views, I think one can safely say that Bush sure did not have the kind of peaceful and poor helping agenda that Jesus might have had if he was president. Tax cuts for the rich, and a war that was condemned by many major church leaders including the Pope certainly are not Jesus-like.

So my question is, how should one's faith shape their politics? Should it not touch it because of our church - state separated country? Or should it shape that for the very fact that we have freedom of religion, rather than freedom from religion? :detective:

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@LittleMathYou,

This might not be a popular view point, but I think that everyone's moral values are, in the end, based on unprovable beliefs. That goes for atheists as well as religious fundamentalists. And I certainly expect a politician's moral values to shape their policy. So I expect that everyone in politics will be making decisions that are shaped by unprovable, or "religious" (in the wide sense), beliefs. And that's OK by me, at least in theory.

I think we often get distracted by attacking opposing politician's core beliefs when what we really don't like is their policies and actions. Of course that is a normal "Us vs. Them" mentality, and it's a natural response to disagreement. But, I think a better way of going about things would be to try to understand the other person's belief system, and make appeals to them through their own system in attempt to find common ground in policy.

I expect that making appeals to pre-held beliefs is going to be more productive than trying to convince them to (1) leave their belief system at home, and then (2) agree with us on policy. An example of appealing to pre-held beliefs was seen in the first post- appealing to conservative Christians by using the teachings of Jesus to help the poor and denounce violence. The same could work the other way too, for example- appealing to liberals by asking how their belief in the importance of autonomy might relate to a late term fetus. And we could go on and on with this kind of idea.

At least this way we can have a discussion, maybe find some common ground.

(Getting down from soapbox...)

-Luke

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@LittleMathYou,

LittleMathYou;136861 wrote:

So my question is, how should one's faith shape their politics? Should it not touch it because of our church - state separated country? Or should it shape that for the very fact that we have freedom of religion, rather than freedom from religion? :detective:

The fact that you think murder is wrong because Jesus told you it's wrong rather than because you have some kind of self-taught system of morality has nothing to do with the separation of church and state.

It's perfectly fine to vote based on your religion. The separation of church only warns against integrating religion into our government. It doesn't matter if you are gaining a system of values from your religion and then voting to enforce those values as law.

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@LittleMathYou,

LittleMathYou;136861 wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, George W. Bush said during his second election; "Jesus is my favorite philosopher." I'm a little puzzled by this quote, because regardless of your political views, I think one can safely say that Bush sure did not have the kind of peaceful and poor helping agenda that Jesus might have had if he was president. Tax cuts for the rich, and a war that was condemned by many major church leaders including the Pope certainly are not Jesus-like.

No, Bush didn't exactly think of the "What Would Jesus Do?". But just because you're Christian and like Jesus, you don't do things exactly as he would.

LittleMathYou;136861 wrote:

So my question is, how should one's faith shape their politics? Should it not touch it because of our church - state separated country? Or should it shape that for the very fact that we have freedom of religion, rather than freedom from religion? :detective:

Hmm. My general opinion is "don't mix politics and religion"... Gosh, it's a really tough question. I don't think I can answer it without getting too philosofical..

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@LittleMathYou,

There's probably no church/state problem so long as one's religious conclusions can be justified on secular grounds, as in the case of laws against murder, etc. There is a problem, however -- at least under U.S. law -- if laws are justified on grounds that are distinctively religious and can no longer be accepted on the basis of public reason (in Rawls's sense).

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@LittleMathYou,

LittleMathYou;136861 wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, George W. Bush said during his second election; "Jesus is my favorite philosopher." I'm a little puzzled by this quote, because regardless of your political views, I think one can safely say that Bush sure did not have the kind of peaceful and poor helping agenda that Jesus might have had if he was president. Tax cuts for the rich, and a war that was condemned by many major church leaders including the Pope certainly are not Jesus-like.

So my question is, how should one's faith shape their politics? Should it not touch it because of our church - state separated country? Or should it shape that for the very fact that we have freedom of religion, rather than freedom from religion? :detective:

Politics should NEVER be mixed with religion, in any religion there's plenty of nonsens. Some years ago, a jury in Texas, against the law relyed on the bible to decide the guilt of a criminal "he who strikes another with iron, must die himself". The convict had shot a man and the bullet only contains led/led with brass jacket.

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Including religion in political decisions?

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