I once was tempted to inflict my views about religion on the reading public until a friendly critic talked me out of it. Praying for relief
from pious pols"An exploration of your relationship with God is one of those occasions where three's a crowd," she said.
I wish national politicians would take her advice. From the way many of them are wearing their contrived piety on their sleeves, you would think they were running for archbishop instead of president of the United States.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush talks about how he had to "recommit my life to Jesus Christ" to turn himself away from the cocaine he won't admit or deny snorting in his un-presidentially wild youth.
The privileged and terminally wonky Al Gore has reinvented himself as a humble "child of the Kingdom."
Hillary Clinton, devoted wife of Bubba the Bible-thumping and perpetually-humping Baptist, conveniently finds her Hebrew side as she trolls for senatorial votes among New York's Jews.
Let's be realistic. If we're looking for somebody to lead us in prayer instead of run the country, there have to be a few million people more qualified for the job than George W. Bush, Al Gore or Hillary Clinton.
The holier-than-thou politicking would be easier to stomach if there was a shred of sincerity in it, but praising God from the stump has become the modern political equivalent of kissing babies.
Presidential candidates are shamelessly playing to polls showing worry about moral decay and to relatively small groups of religious voters key to certain state primaries and caucuses. Watch them pull back on slinging the Scripture after they get past the Evangelical Christians in the primaries and start pitching to a broader audience in the general election.
Any truly religious person would find it unbecoming to use personal faith as a political tool. Just as a good deed is its own reward, genuine morality speaks for itself.
Public concerns about Columbine-type rage, drug use, TV violence, cheating, audacious greed and promiscuous sex are valid. But for the most part, government didn't create these problems and can't solve them. The best politicians can do is get out of the way of the parents, churches and social welfare groups who can bring solutions.
HAWAII is blessed with a religious diversity that keeps matters of the soul from polluting our elections. When one statewide candidate last year was out front on religious issues, his opponent saw it as a vulnerability and successfully used it against him.
Our Constitution gives us the right to practice the religion of our choice -- and also the right not to have religion forced on us by the government.
It's alarming to hear political advocates profess that we are a Christian nation and more alarming to those not of the Christian persuasion to hear presidential candidates feed the lie.
Before our government goes further down the path of concerning itself more with the morality of the people than with the health and welfare of the people, we should take a look at how that concept has worked out in Iran.
One tenet of almost all religions that is embraced even by non-believers is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
What say we all knock off the political preaching, keep our conversations with our gods between the principals and all follow the Golden Rule religiously. We'll be amazed at how quickly our public and private morality improves.
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
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