Who Is My Neighbor?

First, I admit that each time I hear or read "politics" and "religion" together, the hair on the back of my neck bristles and my teeth tend to clench.

Second, I firmly believe that the descriptor you used, "intellectual evangelical", is an oxymoron. But whatever.

My question: On the secular side, what has happened to this country's support of the founding fathers' belief in the importance of the separation of church and state? And on the religious side, when did belief in "Render unto Caesar. . ." end?

History shows that whenever governments are controlled or heavily influenced by religion, the results are repression and hate and bloody war. We are not paying attention to history.

History also shows that whenever governments are NOT controlled or heavily influenced by religion, the results are repression and hate and bloody war. Some outstanding examples: Stalinist Russia, Napoleonic France, the American republic.

Amy Sullivan puts quite a charming face on religion! Though one might have to hop over to Bloggingheads to realize this.

Rev. Wright was right! The US government has been directly or indirectly involved in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, as anyone who has studied Chomsky knows. And Chomsky's claims can be verified. Unfortunately, we have such a widespread and immature 'patriotism' in this country that no candidate can say it, on penalty of political death. They won't say it on Bloggingheads either, which is why I disdain them as 'establishment oriented liberals'.

As someone inclined towards Eastern religions, I can find much wisdom in Christianity, but I wish Christians would abandon their foolish adolescent insistence on being the 'true' religion (same with Muslims). I especially hate it when missionaries buy converts with charity. This is a travesty.

All religions are a mixture of good and bad, due to being a human phenomenon. With conservatives and Republicans, religion is largely a matter of tribal identity, as it was in the worse passages of the Bible. Hence, they are inclined to groupthink and to paranoia, which helped put us in Iraq. True religion is about communing with God, sharing in divine inspiration, and that must be what Amy means when she says she is 'evangelical'.

However, to be truly religious, I think that one must indeed believe in something corresponding to 'God'. It's more than just a good feeling. Since lefties tend to be more educated, they are naturally skeptical of the idea of God, and hence Dems are uncomfortable with the topic. Fortunately, there are good philosophical reasons for believing in something like God, though one must go to the classics, from Plato to Hegel, rather than to modern philosophy, in which metaphysics has been killed by materialism. The Eastern philosophies are even better but require intuition.

Personally, I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster who created the universe 5 minutes ago (including any memories we think we have of any existence prior to that 5 minutes).

Seriously, I do not believe in a "god", i.e. I'm an atheist, but have a philosophy by which I live. For most of my life I have been a Buddhist, which does not posit the existence of a god yet is considered by most people to be a "religion". If religion requires a "God", then count me out. So what?

As a liberal, I am not at all uncomfortable with the topic — I don't like religious groups trying to use the coercive power of the state to force their beliefs on others. Period.

Like Jefferson, I want government to be insulated from religious influence as much as possible.

"Evangelism" has a specific meaning. It means trying to convert others to one's own religion. It is the mark of people insecure their own beliefs.