The Religious Right... Hand Man

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A few entries ago I mentioned the king in the Purim Story, from the Book of Esther.
He had some advisers who told him to kick out his wife, Vashti, for disobeying him.

And who, pray tell, are THESE geniuses?

“The king said to the wise men, which new the times, for so was the king’s manner towards all that knew the law...”

I am reading the King James Version Study Bible, published by Zondervan (edited by Ken Barker). This bible's commentators agree that these wise men “which new the times” refer to…

wait for it…

astrologers!

Yup! The king takes his cues from the goobers who write horoscopes for Parade magazine!

That's ridiculous-- that the king of a nation would follow the advice of soothsaying sorcerers or hocus-pocus prognosticators!

Right?

Well, is it any crazier than having a clergyman serve as a counsel to the President?
What about an evangelical minister speaking during his inauguration?
And over-enunciating the names "Malia" and "Sasha"

Don’t get me wrong, I like Pastor Rick Warren, but the fact that the President even HAS a religious figure give an “inaugural invocation” every 4 years is kind of messed up.
I’m not the first to say so, but what the hell happened to “Separation between Church and State?”
Helloooo?
Our money? “In God we trust?”
Our Pledge of Allegiance—“One nation, under pants,” or whatever…

Nothing new, but worth considering again.

Here are some honest opinions from John Oliver, Chief British correspondent to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", identifying political differences between England and America:

"When I first got here [U.S.A.], Tony Blair was in power in Britain, who's a devout Catholic. But he would never talk about that, and he would be careful never to be photographed going into a church or be recorded talking about his faith -- people would inherently find that suspicious.
Now Britain is definitely a more secular place than here...
(Here comes the crux of it all)
The idea that you HAVE to have a public faith in God or you are not fit for office is VERY difficult to get used to as someone from Europe."

(from interview on "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," broadcast 1/5/2010)

Every single speech the president (or even presidential nominee) makes MUST end with the words, “God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”

I realize “God” is a vague term, but I don’t like the idea of our President asking God to bless our country.
“Mr. President, shouldn’t you balance the budget and re-assign our military troops.”
“Why bother? God is gonna BLESS America, remember? We’ll be fine, now get me another diet Coke! Jesus!”

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