A recent article in The New York Times took up the issue of Christianity in politics and, though I disagree with much the article says (and would LOVE to discuss that!), I thought the author made an interesting point that I wanted to mention here.
The author offers a critique of American politics and how politicians seem willing to parade adherence to a "faith" before the public MERELY for "tactical reasons," for appearances' sake.
In this I would have to agree with the author of the article. There ARE serious problems with those candidates who APPEAR to be Christian or "religious" for no other reason but that a majority of the American public associates "religious" people with "moral" people, those of character and integrity.
It does seem as though we have lost the days in which our politicians actually WERE people of character and integrity. Those days have been replaced by days in which politicians simply want to APPEAR to be people of character and integrity.
The author goes on to argue that these "tactical" politicians are embracing something akin to Pascal's famous "wager" (the idea that the non-Christian takes a much greater risk in betting that there is no God than the Christian does in believing that there is a God--if the Christian is wrong, it's no big deal; but if the non-Christian is wrong, he or she will face the fires of hell for eternity) by "believing" in God because it is politically the least risky position.
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