Replies

These are the points a candidate must address. I am not interested in theological discussions. Each person’s faith is a PRIVATE matter. I am not Christian either, but Jewish. What is Santorum going to do, burn me at the stake?

Obama is scum not because of his faith or lack of it, but because he is bankrupting America, his divisive class warfare, which rips the social tissue of the American people, destroying its national defense and diminishing its status in the world.

You are missing the point. Black Liberation Theology is built on bankrupting the very fabric of (white capitalistic) America.

Rev Wright: Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people

Obama HAS a faith. It is called “Liberation theology.” It serves as a guide for political action. Just as Santorum’s faith serves him, and Romney’s serves him, as a basis of political action, so, too Obama’s. Call it an ideology, in Obama’s case, if that makes you happy, but it is where Obama is coming from. It behooves us all to know about a candidate’s background. It enables us to predict his actions, at least to a certain degree. Each person’s faith is a private matter only to the extent that it does not affect public matters. Of course, you are right to say that a political campaign is not the place to debate theology. But where a man’s faith is so political in orientation, as the President’s is, where it becomes a kind of challenge to the old national consensus of what is right and just, where it aims to put aside the old “civic” religion,” and replace it with another, then we have to think about this and make it part of our private calculations as to what is good for the country. As Burke pointed out a long time ago, prejudice in itself is not wrong. The received wisdom is often right, often it is what has enabled society to survive and flourish. But it must ever defend itself, to see how far it can accommodate challengers and how far accommodate them. Survival requires flexibility, but the tree can bend only so far before it breaks.

I am not Christian either, but Jewish. What is Santorum going to do, burn me at the stake?

The question is not whether a candidate is of the same religion as me; plenty of Baptists got cured of that attitude during the Carter Administration. The question is whether the candidate's religion is compatible with patriotism - with, that is, love of and respect for the public at large. You know what Christians usually do, and you know what muslims usually do, and you know what "liberation theology" is - and it is incompatible with American patriotism. Because "liberation theology" is incompatible with having any desire to protect the liberty of others.