Toto

<a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020602/ap_on_el_gu/alabama_governor_1" target="_blank">Alabama's race for governor has turned into a holier-than-thou contest where campaigning for religion and against gambling has become the Republicans' chosen route to political salvation</a>

Ahem. Does what with the other?

tragic_pizza

Man, you don't know the half of it.

I'm a Pentecostal, Fundamentalist Christian, and the sheer level of cheesy-like-Elvis'-Junge-Room Christinsanity in this state's politics makes my nose bleed. It is disgusting and unBiblical at the least, and outright blasphemy at worst.

Primaries are tomorrow. I am voting a Democratic ticket, in protest of the cheapening of Christianity for the sake of a vote.

beachbum

tragic_pizza

In the worlds oa avery wise man - me - "Vote early and Vote often".

tragic_pizza

I thought that only worked in West Palm Beach...

[ June 03, 2002: Message edited by: tragic_pizza ]</p>

cartman

I applaud your integrity and wish more Christians would follow suit.

tragic_pizza

Thank you for that. I think that more than a few Christians are beginning to "wise up" to these tactics. Only time, of course, will tell...

SharonDee

My parents still live in Alabama. My mother is a fundy Christian but she would agree that politics and religion do not mix. However, my father is a Roman Catholic and a huge supporter of Judge Roy Moore.

That's not the way it's supposed to work, is it?
<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

tragic_pizza

I ended up having to give a speech last night, last minute, to my Toastmasters club. Thanks to this thread, I spoke on this (admittedly controversial) subject.

The thing that occurs to me is that, since it is obviously counterBiblical to parade one's faith about for political/financial gain (Matthew 6), why do these probably-devout Christians persist?

Simple: votes. Conservative, Fundamentalist Christians will vote for the candidate most homogenous to them, and those voters who are repulsed by the "God told me to tell you to vote for me" method of campaigning will stay home -- and any vote that isn't cast is a vote for the front-running candidate.

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

So I voted Democrat, crossing out that stupid little pledge that's on the Demo ballots in this state, and avoiding the candidate who hired a "Clergy Coordinator" for his campaign.

I'm only one voice. But I AM a voice.

tragic_pizza

Update:

Rob Riley, who ran the ad with the endorsement of a faux pastor, won out over Windom, the guy who had the church choir and fundraiser for Judge Roy Moore at his campaign kickoff.

On a positive note, State Auditor Susan Parker and Montgomery attorney Julian McPhillips are headed for a June 25 runoff for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate held by Republican Jeff Sessions. Julian McPhillips is the one who had a commercial dedicated to his daughter praying at the dinner table.

Kind of a pity that McPhillips resorted to playing the God card, really. He made a name for himself in the African American community as a civil rights lawyer. Had he not sickened us all, he may well have won, and been a good senator.

theyeti

Sounds an awful lot like South Carolina's Rupublican primary. I had the misfortune to watch them debate on public television last night. One member of the panel asked a question concerning the legitimate criticism that's appeared about their making an issue of their faith, and whether it's really just pandering to conservative Christians (IIRC, one candidate even has a 30 second comercial about nothing but his faith). Instead of talking about something like inclusiveness and unity, each one of them in turn just offered more pandering. Lots of posturing about how important God is and how the founding fathers knew about the importance of God, etc. Nothing that really answered the question.

Of course, I was already turned off by that point after hearing their tax proposals, which for three of the four leading candidates means abolishing property taxes, even though those are levied by the county, not the state. Naturally, the lost revenue will be replaced by raising sales taxes. This is supposed to "help the elderly". I suppose it will help the elderly -- if they're rich and own lots of property.

theyeti