Godlessness and Politics

The North Carolina race for senate has made national headlines, as the battle between incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Kay Hagan has made a very negative turn. What's sad is WHY it made a negative turn. Elizabeth Dole's campaign put out a commercial (click here for link)accusing Kay Hagan of receiving donations for her campaign from a group called Godless Americans, who organization seeks to ensure separation of church and state.

The commercial accused Hagan of secretly meeting with leaders of this group and receiving campaign donations from them.

What concerns me about the ad isn't so much that Elizabeth Dole slammed Kay Hagan by saying she met with a group of people who are part of this organization. What concerns me more is that she thought to slam Kay Hagan this way, and that Hagan herself had to fight back and deny it. The sad fact is that this country is so riddled with church interference in state policies, that Kay Hagan, in order to stay in the race for U.S. Senate, HAD to defend herself for meeting with a group of atheists.

Thinking about it this way suddenly puts things in a whole new sinister perspective. That Kay Hagan might have to keep any relations with non-religious people or groups a secret hearkens back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition, when people had to keep their lack of belief secret or face the wrath of the church. That Kay Hagan has to defend her religious beliefs by saying she's a Sunday School teacher, attends church regularly, etc., is a slap in the face to all of the people in this country who are atheist or agnostic.

I am an American who does not believe in God. Does that make me less of an American than someone who does? Are we already living in the dreaded Theocracy that the fundamentalist christians in this country are attempting to create? Revisionist history has already made historical non-believers like Thomas Jefferson into "good christian men."

The United States of America was a nation founded to prevent the state from dictating to the church, or vice versa. Let's work to keep it that way.