Separation of Church and State
As the inauguration draws near, a peculiar guest is apparently invited, Reverend Rick Warren. Rev. Rick Warren has a best selling book and a strong following, .
Michelle Malkin makes a good point in pointing out the hypocrisy that when Republicans do something with religious leaders it is a violation of Secularism (Separation of Church and State) but when Democratic leader Barack Obama invites Reverend Rick Warren, it's perfectly fine!
Although some of you will disagree with me on this and will have a healthy debate about it, in a real secular nation, government shouldn't be involved with religious leaders at all. Religious leaders have their own influences and world. The founding fathers would not be happy with Rick Warren being in the inauguration with a special role instead of simply being there to watch.
I'm not sure why the invitation of Rick Warren even happened but it is definitely a Democratic strategy of President-Elect Barack Obama to weaken Republican comebacks by presenting himself as very friendly to Religious organizations.
As a Republican Christian, you shouldn't fall for it. Many of the Democrats do not like that Reverend Rick Warren was invited and are complaining heavily.
Let me be clear, Reverened Rick Warren is a very respectable man, his philanthropy is incredibly inspiring. However, if religion played a deep role in our government, we'd be almost no different than Saudi Arabia, in which religion plays a heavy role.
The idea is, freedom of religion exists, and you should be able to worship in peace and with all the freedoms possible, but influencing government is not part of that freedom, although I know Reverend Rick Warren would not do such a thing anyway, as he is an enlightened man.
The secular problem though, does not exist in the United States. This threat exists mostly in the Middle East, in places such as Turkey where religious leaders actively seek leadership and control over the people's lives and the secular authority has to really fight to keep control. Luckily for the United States, most religious leaders such as Reverend Rick Warren are not looking for power or control and are really there to preach religion and religion alone. And that should be respected as well by the Democrats.
I'd agree that a religion run by the state (or a state run by a religion) would quickly lead to crisis. I'm just not convinced though that an invitation to an inaugural prayer actually crosses any lines. I guess it would depend on the content of the prayer.
Speaking of which, I'd love to see some transcripts to past prayers. I wonder where such a resource might be available?
You're right, like I said, I doubt Reverend Rick Warren's invitation will be any sort of problem. It's simply symbolically odd that they would invite him.
I find it as Barack Obama using religion to his advantage. Inviting Reverend Rick Warren because he knows Evangelists don't like him, but he wants to make it seem like he is their friend.
And trust me, quite a number of religious Evangelists have begun to respect Obama for this, not understanding that Obama really doesn't like Reverend Rick Warren.
In fact, the whole invitation angered Obama's own leftist friends.
Post new comment