Long considered taboo for polite discussion, religion and politics now seem to be the topic of the day. Who you're for is no longer a private matter when it comes to religion or politics. In fact, the implication is that they should somehow go hand-in-hand.
Last night, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fielded questions that had to do with their faith, their politics and how the former may influence the latter at a "Compassion Forum" held in Pennsylvania. Don't let the title fool you, the forum had little if anything to do with compassion and lots to do with nailing down the faith perspectives of our two democratic candidates.
In America, our nation was set up in a way that would ensure the separation of church and state. Why - because the founding fathers were a bunch of atheists? No, because many of the people who settled here had come to escape religious persecution. They wanted the freedom to worship (or not) as they saw fit. Keeping a separation between church and state ensured that the political powers of the day would be (Read more...)