Politics and religion

As a general rule, I avoid discussions of politics and religion because they tend to go badly. Either I disagree with the person I am conversing with, which only makes me think less highly of them and their intelligence - and I am misanthropic enough without any encouragement, or I agree with them and get tired of agreeing and rehashing grievances. Occasionally I can have a measured discussion, but this isn't common. Besides, my philosophy is that my beliefs on religion and politics are my business, not anyone else's, and most people probably do not want to hear me talk about them.

That said, I get extremely tired of people who claim that the United States is a Christian nation, and all that "God Bless America" rhetoric. I do not like that my religion is co-opted and twisted to serve political purposes. At the time this country was founded, almost everyone would have been considered a Christian, whether they believed in it or not. Thomas Jefferson is often described as a Christian, but he re-wrote the Bible to remove all the bits he didn't like. Don't believe me? Here is a modern reprint of it. This tendency to pull out the rhetoric is especially bad in election years (which this technically is not, but try telling that to all the presidential candidates...). All of this lead up is simply so I can recommend this op-ed article from the New York Times. It is, and has been for several days, at the top of the list of emailed and blogged articles. Read it. Give it to your conservative friends.