There’s a meme going around right now that reviews a bit of political history. Remember the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton for sexual misconduct in the late 90’s? They were led by a Republican legislator who, at the time, was hiding a sexual affair. He was supposed to be replaced by another Republican who had to step down because he was having a sexual affair. The Republicans then elected a new Speaker of the House, who is currently under investigation because of suspicious payments he made to cover up alleged sexual molestation of boys.
The meme doesn’t explicitly call this out, but I think it’s worth mentioning that these are all men who were elected by conservative Christians trying to put God back in government. Separation of church and state isn’t some plot to try and marginalize Christians. It’s just that mingling politics and religion is a bad idea, and harms both the state and the church.
This does not follow from the sequence of events you describe.
The logical conclusion one reaches from that sequence of events is that mingling politics and arseholes is a bad idea. Even if you elected only atheists, you’re still electing politicians, a disturbingly extensive proportion of whom are demonstrably massive arseholes. Indeed, rather a bone of contention at FtB over the years has been the observation that merely being an atheist/rationalist/humanist/whatever doesn’t insulate you from being a douchnozzle of the highest order.
Well, without the religion, they’d still be assholes yes, but they probably wouldn’t have been trying to impeach the president over adultery. (Oh, I’m sorry, for “lying under oath”. About adultery. Except when they forgot to say that.)
You’re right, that’s also a valid conclusion one can draw. But if you’re a good, sincere, religious person, and you just elected those arseholes because they claimed to share your faith, and everyone associates those arseholes with your faith, then you’ve tarnished your own brand. Leave the religion out of it, and they’re still arseholes, but at least nobody can reasonably point to your religion and say, “These are the representatives of your faith?!?”
True. If they were looking for representatives of your faith, they’d have to look at the clergy, and we all know they’re morally spotless… right?
Assuming facts not in evidence. You’re suggesting politicians of one party wouldn’t use any means at their disposal to bring down a president from the opposition party who had presented them with such an obvious opportunity? Do you even watch the news?
If only a moral upstanding Christian can be elected, all politicians will pretend to be moral upstanding Christians. Declaring oneself to be Christian is the shortcut to looking moral and upstanding, even if the evidence is overwhelmingly against it.
“Look! That’s guy wants to rob you!” says the pickpocket trying to lift your wallet.
It’s misdirection, plain and simple. Those who talk loudest about “godlessness and LGBTQIA predators” are most likely to be predators.
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