Sunday, June 08, 2008

McCain thinks the Constitution establishes a Christian nation

McCain continues to demonstrate mind-boggling ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, for someone who has already sworn numerous times to uphold it. He's clearly unfit to be president--he's either ignorant of U.S. history or being dishonest in order to pander to the religious right. (I previously reported similar remarks by McCain last October.)

The Bible and the Christian tradition do not support a limited constitutional republic--if you got your politics from the Bible or Christian tradition, you'd argue for a monarchy with virtually limitless power. That's probably part of the reason that the Bush administration has argued against any limits on executive power.



(From Atheist Media Blog by way of Pharyngula.)

3 comments:

Fergie said...

Jim,

I completely agree. John McCain is either (a) a panderer to the Christian Right, or (b) actually believes the nonsense he is spouting, or (c) both.

Either way, he is a dangerous man to be considered to be in The White House, especially after the horrific Constitutional violations of the Bush Administration over the course of the past 7+ years.

Having said that, I support the freedom of Americans to practice whatever religious superstitions that they wish to endeavor, but let's keep the separation of Church and State sacrosanct -- our Founding Fathers framed the architecture of the U.S. Government that way for a very good reason.

This is not to say that I do not respect John McCain for his service to our country -- in fact, I do very much. As a U.S. Army veteran, I have a very high regard for him in his sacrifices during the Vietnam War. But his views on governing this country from the Oval Office, I fear, will be detrimental to us all.

- ferg

Hume's Ghost said...

I love the part where he cites "in god we trust" as proof the founders wanted to establish a Christian nation on "Christian principles".

Lippard said...

Fergie: Agree. I'm not sure Obama will be any better--he says things like advocating "belief in things not seen" as "God's greatest gift to us" and seems to have a very broad view of the role of the president as national savior, but I'm hoping he'll reign in some of the recent constitutional abuses. I fear, though, that even if he reduces executive power in some areas, he will expand it in others.

Hume's Ghost: Yeah, those Founding Fathers who were active in 1954... This all seems somehow familiar.