LETTER: Deciding religion’s place
To the editor:
A recent letter published in The Statesman regarding politics and religion I feel brought up a very difficult issue that must be faced by all of us and soon. Does religion have a place in politics? Right now our troops are fighting an Islamo-facist war in which politics and religion are being confused. We are also fighting a battle in Washington every day regarding the place of religious views in politics. Decisions regarding the issues of abortion, stem-cell research, the Iraq war, gay marriage and I might even stretch to say global warming have a religious element to them. Religious views and opinions of religion will always determine what our country is. The word religion stems from Latin; re-ligation or a re-connection, meaning a re-connection to a higher power. Whether a person is an atheist or not they will have beliefs regarding God. Either God exists or God does not and that belief will determine that persons actions. A belief in God merely complicates things because now the individual needs to take God’s opinion of issues into account. That is where organized religion helps teach its followers God’s opinion. Religious beliefs do influence the decisions of political leaders and law makers. “Thank Heaven” (pun intended) our founding fathers had ties to organized religions that helped them figure out what would be best for our new country. Belonging to a religion does not force you into a certain action, it only influences your actions. The LDS faith highly encourages its members to not drink alcohol, however some still drink, may I also add that the LDS faith encourages equality among all men and there is no teaching in that religion regarding color as a qualification for inequality (see 2 Nephi 26:33). The Catholic church believes in the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” (see Exodus 20:14) but it still happens within that faith. The Muslim faith promotes peace (Q 2:263), yet some of its members are highly involved in violence. The tricky part to this issue is the membership in a religion does not guarantee specific actions, it only encourages them. To state that religion should have no place in politics and law-making agendas, however, is absurd. That arena is where religion needs to be used the most.
Ryan Jackson