On Thursday I wrote about George Bush, Christian Crusader and found that there remains Bush worshippers who defended him against charges of being shallow. None actually addressed the main point of the post in which Bush is quoted in once again falling back on religion to justify his decision to go to war.
What if we didn’t have such a shallow President? What if we had a President who both understood religion and understood why religious views must be kept separate from political decisions? The West Wing provided us with a fictional example of this as President Bartlett took on a fundamentalist:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHaVUjjH3EI]
Update: The Republican view from Arnold Vinick
This was in my paper today and I find it more than disturbing.
Link
First of all, let me say that I know Rob Pennington, included in the article with his photo, who is now serving 8 years in prison for his role in the death of an Iraqi civilian. He is my son’s childhood friend, was our immediate next door neighbor, and I have known him since he was 5. He is a bright kid and a good person. I think the fact that he is in prison is a tragedy and wrong. This whole incident in Iraq happened on his third deployment. His second time in Iraq was the battle of Fallujah where he was involved in bad stuff and his best buddy was blown to bits right next to him. Injured and suffering from PTSD, he was still sent to Iraq for time number 3. I blame Bush and this ridiculous war for putting kids like this in horrible situations where they do not know who is trying to blow them up and they take action.
But disturbingly, it is right wing religious types who are justifying the actions of our military as biblical. These people say Marines like Rob Pennington should not be punished because they are doing God’s work. Ok, this scares the hell out of me. So groups have formed to support troops accused of atrocities and people are donating money for lawyers, etc. Many of the donors are doing it for religious reasons. Quotes:
” ‘Bible says that the country will always be fighting. We have been praying for all you boys and girls.’…
Religious conviction plays a role in much of the giving, Barnes said.
‘They believe the military’s work is God’s work,’ he said. ‘That’s what’s been indicated in the letters.’ “