Politics is their religion

I've tried (unlike Ziek) to keep politics out of my posts, but I've come to a point where I must say something. In reading recently about Sarah Palin's comments about the Iraq war being "a task from God", I became infruriated with more of what I've talked about before - people using religion to condone their (or their party's) bad actions/beliefs.

I can guarantee that God didn't want us to go to another country to kill people over oil. Or I mean, God didn't want us to kill people over spite. I mean, God didn't want us to kill people to ensure that our president would be in prime position to secure a second term in office. Well...pick you poison. I shouldn't be so critical, I guess. It's hard to remember ALL of the ten commandments when trying so hard to use religion for political gain.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think politicians who are religious should certainly not hide that fact and are correct to consult God while living thier lives, which includes running a government or campaigning for office. But, what too frequently happens is that these people will do a great job of talking the talking, but completely forget to walk the walk.

I even suspect that this one of the main reasons that Republicans have so heinously tried to appropriate religion as their own domain. The national platform of the GOP has time after time proven that it is incapable of actually walking the walk.

What Would Jesus Do? Well, I don't know exactly what Jesus would do in every situation, but I know this: Jesus wouldn't treat women, minorities, homosexuals unequally. Jesus wouldn't hoard his paycheck and not be willing to share it with people less fortunate. If Jesus knew the environment was dying because of his industrialism, he wouldn't turn a blind eye, hire fringe scientists to make fake reports to cover up the damage he'd done, and ignore the problem (Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson agree with me on this one.) And Jesus certainly would not start the Iraq war. Not in a million years.

So, instead, they pick one thing Jesus definately wouldn't do, and they make it seem like the most important religious and political issue of our time. They make the other side seem completely devoid of religion. They make politics more important than God by simply using God as a tool to achieve their selfish desires. Clearly this subject hits me emotionally. I welcome all thoughts and comments.