Not Showing Up to Pay My Rent

During many of my little adventures in faith, I read and dug Garry Wills two books Why Am I Catholic and Papal Sin -- or, in brief Why Am I Actually Sort of Protestant and Popes are Tricksy. Did you know Popes weren't infallible until the mid-1800's? Funky.

Anyway, Wills explores the faith-based natures of the current Administration in a perfectly reasoned way which, if you've even heard of Thomas Jefferson, should dismay you. (Oh, that's not just a biographical wikipedia link, it's actually important. Go take a look. I'll wait.)

This is not a slag on faith -- nor do I consider it improper to slag faith, to be honest it's just not my thing -- but the separation of Church and State is there for a reason. It's a good reason: once one side of the political debate claims God, then their opponents are against God. A "good heart" matters more than the facts. To change policy is to reflect doubt in God's plan. To question the mortal, fallible men in authority is to question God himself.

And on a gut level, way down in the limbic system, we know/are memetically programmed to believe those against God are not wrong or simply have different opinions, they are evil.

(Personally, I believe this is a rejection of God's intent for man, because it squanders the gifts he gave man alone: reason and doubt. Reason so that we can unravel the mysteries of a near infinitely complex Creation, and doubt so that faith has meaning. But, hey, that's just me.)

Let's just say that when one is accused of being unpatriotic because one opposes an Evangelical administration which favours torture, we are all the way through the Looking Glass.