Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Pandering To The Faithful

Either you are or you are not

Hey folks,

It really is simple. Either you have faith, or you do not. Either you believe in God, or you do not. Either you believe in morality, or you do not. If you chose to, or not, believe in something is your choice. But to try to pursued someone with words and not deeds, is both hypocritical and disingenuous.

I do have my opinion on those with Faith and those that fake it for self gain. I have talked about this quite a bit of the years. I have talked about the difference in Made-Made Traditions called Religion and truth faith. So I truly am looking forward to this Sunday. {Notice the symbolism? Sunday?}

This is the day when Obama and Clinton will sit down at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and discuss faith based issues to the faithful. Should be interesting.

According to CNN - Commentary: Democrats finally getting religion on religion, by Roland S. Martin

On Sunday, CNN will broadcast the Compassion Forum, an event hosted by CNN's Campbell Brown and Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham. It will explore issues of faith and morality with Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Sunday's forum, which will be held at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, will allow each candidate to speak for 40 minutes on various moral issues, including poverty, global AIDS, climate change and human rights.

These are all vital issues that we should want to hear our presidential candidates discuss at length, and it's time that our debates and discussions with the candidates went beyond the war in Iraq, illegal immigration and terrorism.

While on the surface it looks good for Democrats to embrace those in the faith world, there are some serious potential land mines they are going to have to confront.

Like they do not believe what they are going to talk about? Like most of those that view will see it as it is, pandering. Pure and unadulterated pandering?

I have always maintained that people of faith who are conservative need to move beyond the issues of abortion and homosexuality and broaden what are deemed faith issues. But the Democratic Party is going to have to do the opposite -- that is have some serious discussions as to how it's going to confront social issues and not ignore abortion and homosexuality.

Yes, but if you do not mean what you say, then why say it? If they do not mean that they believe this or that is wrong, say they do, then turn around a attempt to justify, legalize, or expand things that are deemed by the faithful as Sin, then they will simply be seen as liars and worst than if they just said the truth. Something like, "Hey look, we have freedom of Religion in this country. We understand that some of you do not accept certain things based on the Bible and on your morals. I personally do not believe in God. I personally see nothing wrong with this or that. Sorry, I am running for the Presidency for ALL Americans, and have to do what I feel is right for the country as a whole." But to say "I'm with you. I believe in God. Yes I know this is wrong." Yet allow it to continue is much worse.

Now this guy, Roland S. Martin, is in essence saying that they have to do this to win. They have to accept those faithful ignorant people and try to convince them that they are on their side. as a matter of fact he ends this piece with this.

Is there room for people with opposing views on various issues to support either Obama or Clinton? Absolutely. But if either campaign is hell-bent on silencing their faith supporters because of such a disagreement, they risk alienating them, thus depriving the party of a broader constituency to take back the White House.

In other words, ignore the churchgoing folks and you don't stand a prayer of winning.

Now he concentrated mostly on the two biggest hot button issues. Which is probably what the whole show will do as well. Homosexuality and Abortion. But I'm interested in seeing what they actual SAY about Faith itself. I'm interested to see how they handle this situation. Should be interesting to watch. Are they going to misquote the Bible? Are they going to PROMISE things to the Faithful we all know they will not keep? Are they going to look like fools when it's all over because they truly have no clue? Or will they actually surprise us?

40 minutes a piece this Sunday, should tell us all we need to know about these two on Faith and how they see the Faithful. I'll be watching. Even if you do not believe, you should watch as well.
Peter

Sources:
CNN - Commentary: Democrats finally getting religion on religion

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