Why do Americans often give their religion and political allegiance in the same sentence/in the same breath? I've read this so often while blog-hopping in the profiles.
"I am a Christian and a Republican"
"I am a democrat and a Christian"
"I am a Muslim and Impeach Bush Now!"
"I am a Menschevik Mormon".
Well, maybe not the latter. It's very very odd.. There are a lot of gung-ho Baptists and Jews and Catholics and what-nots out there with banners and rosettes and rally marches and party lines. Very weird.
How can you be that devoted to a political persuasion? I understand religious devotion, of course, and the approval of God. But is there a teaching circulating that God backs a political party in particular? Surely no-one thinks George Bush and his party are divinely inspired? I don't get it.
I don't see the British doing this. (But religion isn't big in Britain really, strangely enough.)
Do the Canadians do this?
Do the Europeans?
Does Asia?
I haven't noticed it. But I have noticed the Middle Eastern countries do it.
That's a bit disturbing.
And no, Australia is not like this at all, not that I'm particularly politically savvy( voting on the basis of who has the best eyebrows and would make the best caricature for cartoonists) but I think most Australians are pretty flexible on who they will vote for.
The Westminster system really is the most democratic in the world. You know, I reckon the Yanks'll have a real dictator one day because their system overly exalts the president. Just catch the Messianic overtones to some of their campaigns: scary!
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posted by anonymous jones @ 1:13 PM
5 Comments:
Jones,
I'm American and I don't do that.
Oh I just meant that it was a noticeable tendency - not that everyone in the country does it: just an unusual number.
P.S. And if you do do that, I'm not necessarily criticizing you ... just making an observation about something I don't fathom.
I know what you mean!!
Don't see that often in Canada...
Not sure I can shed much light on this, but I have that phrase in my blog side bar. I am a Christian. I am a republican.
I think many of us do that because our polictical beliefs are tied directly to our religious/moral stance. That isn't to say I believe you can't be a Christian and a Democrat as well...for me, they are just two parts of who I am. And if I state that up front, I feel it lets people know a little more about me.
Maybe we, as Americans, are afraid a lable we didn't give ourselves will be slapped on us...maybe we're just too egocentric.
How can one be a Christian and a republican?? Christ was probably a about 100 miles to the left of Marx. If you claim to follow Christ, you would need to be a socialist or a communist (without the no religion stuff). Christ would never have been a Republican - he would have made fun of them.
Who would Jesus bomb?
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