Danger of Invoking God to Defend Politics

Although politicians of all types do it, we are much more likely to see conservatives and religious conservatives use their religious doctrines to defend political policies that have little, if any, connections to religion in the first place. History should teach us that this is almost always a bad idea.

The Nasau Telegraph runs an editorial saying:

Bush has stated that “I believe God wants me to be president.” Time and time again throughout history it has been shown that acting on the belief that God is on one’s side leads to suffering, intolerance, lying, and corruption by events such as crusades, witch trials, murderers who believe they are carrying out God’s will (why are they crazy and George Bush not?), and the current administration, which is ripe with examples of deceit and narrow-mindedness. ... Political actions based on rational, well-thought out beliefs would surely create a more positive society than ones based on personal faith.

Polices based upon reason and reflection certainly sound like a good idea, but the pursuit of such policies is the aim of the "reality-based community," not the manly faith-based community of George W. Bush, religious conservatives, neo-conservatives, and Republican leaders. They "create" their own reality through faith-based action.

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