Illustrating The Joys Of Theocracy

All of the talk lately about the religious preferences of the presidential candidates or their lack of them has me concerned for the direction of the current campaign and the fact that religion has any place in this discussion at all.

Yesterday, while drinking my second cup of coffee and mentally preparing for the second week of moving to a new residence, a letter to the editor of USA Today caught my attention.

One Harold Burnett of Palmdale, California seems to have gotten his evangelical shorts in a wad over an op-ed piece titled "What is a 'real' Christian?" written by Dan Gilgoff in USA Today on May 21. Mr Burnett writes:

I agree with Focus on the Family's founder James Dobson, who seems to believe that a Christian should be the GOP presidential nominee ("What is a 'real' Christian?" On Religion, The Forum, May 21).

If for no other reason, a Christian would balance the power of the left, the atheists and those waging open war against many conservatives.

But where is this real Christian who is willing to run for president? The fact that Mr. Dobson is not considering it illustrates the problem Christians in this country face. It seems there is a perception that real Christians don't get involved in politics. Though we are willing to support someone who meets our conservative criteria, we are not willing to be him.

Could it be that many professing Christians are not real Christians and are afraid of being exposed as hypocrites? It seems to me that a religious conservative is the best we can hope for this time around.

Perhaps, due to my past exposure to various "Christian" denominations, and various experiences with other religious groups, sects, cults, klaverns, whatever, I no longer claim a religious affiliation of any kind and hope to quietly live out my days as far from religious authority, zealotry, bigotry and lunacy as possible.

I think that it was Einstein who said, "If God did not exist, man would have to invent him" or something along those lines.

Op-ed Banned in Minnesota

In the classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, mainstream newspapers refuse to publish reports of idealistic Senator Jefferson Smith's battle against Congressional corruption. Thus, it falls to an informal network of concerned citizens and newspaper boys to get out the truth.  Today, fiction became reality as word came that a Minnesota newspaper, the Pioneer Press, has refused to publish an op-ed supportive of Coleen Rowley, Democratic candidate for the 2nd District.

Clearly, the Press, which announced support for incumbent John Kline, fears that the gap between idealist Rowley and Stepford Republican Kline has narrowed to the extent that any favorable publicity for Rowley could result in a upset.

Let's send the message to the Pioneer Press and likeminded papers that their strategy of suppressing differing opinions is a loser. With permission from the authors, please distribute this article and the banned op-ed, below, as widely as possible via blogs, email and commentary, and help the integrity candidate win on November 7!

With Memorial Day coming up fast, I thought that this might be something to think about:

Veterans Day Every Day #7

David T Harris for US Congress TX 06

A FOLLOW ME TO DC community project

For any one that has followed my out-of-the-box campaign thus far, I welcome you to become familiar with our community service efforts.  It is difficult running for office for anyone but I was certain that I would use the public forum, while available, to continue something that our family believes wholeheartedly in our own lives every day.  If everyone volunteered an hour a week or contributed $20 a month to a charity, I am confident it would change the world.