Last night at the Veritas Forum, panelists discussed the role of religion in politics. Unsurprisingly, Huckabee’s name came up a few times. As you already know Huckabee is a firm believer that religion and politics should go together, and I think he might have said something about Christ being the only way to salvation. But, I mean, he’s good a guy. He doesn’t like racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism (although, I look forward to seeing a Jewish voter vote for him) and other social ills. So what’s wrong with him? Nothing. He’s in a god-damn rock band with his own MySpace Music site. His religion is not Christianity, it’s Capitol Offense. But yes, it’s true, he spends more time ranting about his religion during his political campaign.
According to some of the panelists at the Forum, you simply can’t make it central to your politic:
Professor of Humanities and Religion Mark Lilla, another panelist, pointed out that incorporating religion into a campaign restricts a candidate’s group of supporters almost entirely to like-minded individuals. “It’s being sent as a signal to voters that on this, we won’t compromise,” he said. “That attitude is very unhealthy in democracy.”
I’m not too sure what the Forum actually achieved, but now I can rest easy knowing that religion and politics can’t actually be separated because their influence will inevitably pound each other away until the end of time. Why can’t everyone just be Scientologists and get along?