Monday, August 18, 2008

"We're electing a president, not a national pastor"

. . . says (LINK:)Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Church and State.

I don’t see what good it will do for the American people to again hear the candidates spout pious platitudes about their favorite Bible verses or how devout they are.

“Candidates should appeal to the voters based on their qualifications for office and their stands on the issues, not their religious beliefs,” Lynn said.

I agree with Lynn that we have heard enough about the religious views of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama and let’s get on to the real issues. Looking back at the ” Rick Warren Bible drill” I say now that that is over, let’s get on with debating and discussing the things without the distraction of personal religious convictions. We’re a country of diverse people, not an evangelical congregation.

“This event continues the campaign spiral into religious matters. Americans want to hear the candidates’ views on important issues such as constitutional rights, public education, the Iraq War and the economy.”

The Sunday after the forum was held, Warren told his congregation:

“I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, ‘I don’t need God,’ ” Warren said. “They’re saying, ‘I’m totally self-sufficient by [myself].’ And nobody is self-sufficient to be president by themselves. It’s too big a job.”

So, no matter how intelligent, level-headed, fair, and moral an atheist is, he is saying that an atheist cannot do as good of a job because an atheist does not have an imaginary “co-pilot”. And no one disputed that.

And Warren left out the fact that President can’t do his job with just the help of his/her imaginary friend. The President has advisors, committees, military generals, and other experts who help him do his job. No sky boss comes in and sits in at meetings and offers any advice. God is only involved when a president wants to use it as justification to invade a country, etc. If he says that God told him to do it, then the people cannot argue with that, right? :roll:

LINK: After Obama-McCain forum, Rick Warren sermon focuses on character

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your site and all, Stardust, but reading those kinds of articles is really making me wish I could find a country where only atheists are allowed to run for president.....

You know of any? lol

Stardust said...

I wish I had better things to report from the atheist perspective, but not too many out there right now . . . except for the fact that more and more of us are coming out of hiding and speaking out. Our numbers are growing and a good thing also is that we have moderate Christians like Rev Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State speaking out also.

BUT despite that fact, I wonder if the Rev. Lynn would vote for an atheist??? I should email him and ask him that question.

Also, I bet lots of politicians ARE atheists but lie to get into office. They lie about so many things and probably are lying about that, too. Obama could be putting on a big act for all we know.

Christa said...

Hi Stardust

I found your site when I was looking for an atheist prayer. ]

I posted it on my website:

http://atheisttoolbox.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7623

I posted your thoughts about Rick Warren as well, as we were discussing it this morning:

http://atheisttoolbox.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7621

Greetings from a fellow godless person :)

Lu

Stardust said...

Hi Luci, welcome! I checked out your website and will be back to visit often. Thanks for stopping by and commenting and posting my link.

Tommykey said...

“I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, ‘I don’t need God,’ ” Warren said. “They’re saying, ‘I’m totally self-sufficient by [myself].’ And nobody is self-sufficient to be president by themselves. It’s too big a job.”

Gosh, Rick Warren is a dick! That's why presidents have, like, advisors!

Interestingly, the current resident of the White House thinks the Divine guided him in the invasion of Iraq, and we got over 4,000 dead soldiers and tens of thousands wounded. I say it is the presidents who think that god is telling them what to do are the ones we need to worry about.