How is religion demonstrated in American politics today?

Question

I'm looking for specific examples for a report I'm doing in school. I know we are supposed to be secular, but all of our dollar bills say "in God we trust" and when the president is inagurated he has to swear on the bible, and in a lot of Bush's speeches he uses God's name, and when he declared war he used God's name. Is there any other huge ways that religion is used in this 'secular' state?

Answer 1

You know we are supposed to be secular? How, exactly, do you know that? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to pick on you. You seem sincere and thoughtful. But if "We are supposed to be secular" passes for a true statement in the school you attend, something is very wrong. We are supposed to be free to believe whatever we want. That is the whole point and reason for being of this country. The First Amendment says Congress can't establish a religion or interfere with the free exercise of religion, but that's a long way from saying we are supposed to be secular. In fact, the prohibition against interference with the free exercise of religion is pretty close to the opposite of saying we are supposed to be secular. We are free to be religious. Its right there in the Constitution. (By the way, the President does not have to swear on the Bible, he chooses to. He could choose not to, though none has so far.)

Everyone always mentions the trivial stuff like "In God We Trust" on money, or the Ten Commandments in courtrooms or legislatures, or mentioning God in speeches, or giving Bibles or Korans to prisoners, but politics is about power and if you really want to understand politics always look for the money. Churches are tax exempt. That is a benefit conferred by the government worth hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Individual clergy get a huge income tax deduction. Charities, many of which are run by churches, are tax exempt. Charitible contributions are tax deductible. More billions in benefit.

In return, churches form a natural source of contributions, voters and volunteers for candidates from both parties. Republicans court fundamentalist protestant churches. Democrats court black baptist churches. Both parties try to get the Chatholic and Jewish vote. The flow of money in both directions, the free labor in campaigns, and the block voting in elections constitute a real source of power in U.S. politics.

Answer 2

Well in the elections themselves, religion places a rather large role. Look at Barrack Hussein Obama, yes, that's his actual middle name. Since 9/11, Islam has been undeniably unpopular in the USA, and he has wisely downplayed his religion, in favor for his mother's. Others, have actually upplayed their religion, like Catholic John Kerry. Though the US may be a 'secular' state officially, the vast majority of the country is Christian, or at least has Judeo-Christian values.

Politicians often cite their own religions for the viewpoints on certain issues. Gay Marriage and Abortion being the most common, this has gotten less popular recently though.

Edit: Uh? Cowardly? By all means, send me a message, I wasn't even aware you could do that on here.

Answer 3

God is always invoked by government officials to help the people and it is the most demonstrative involvement of religon in politics.

Answer 4

You refer to what is generally called "ceremonial Deism" but the Republican Party goes beyond that in implementing policies that actually favor a specific religious tradition: Common-denominational Protestantism. Bush's "Faith-Based Initiative" funnels $2.2 billion a year to religious groups. ALL of it goes to conservative Christians. NONE of it goes to Liberal groups, let alone to non-Christian groups. They also are engaged in right-wing Social Engineering based on conservative Christian values, spending additional funds on "Marriage Initiatives", "Fatherhood Initiatives", and Abstinence-only Education.

Plus if they had their way, they'd put sectarian prayer and Bible study back in the PUBLIC schools, so that the millions of little infidel children whose parents neglected to teach them the "true" faith would have their children turned away from the religious traditions of their families.

They also want to ban abortion under all circumstances, even ban birth control. These also come from religious motives.
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S P is IGNORANT. Barack Obama is not and never was a Muslim. His mother was an Atheist. He is a member of the United Church of Christ. I'd like to tell him that myself, but he's too cowardly to allow messages.

Answer 5

abortion. gay marriage.