Question: What is religion’s proper role in government?
Warren: I get a little confused when I hear people say, “Well I have religious faith, but it doesn’t have anything to do with my politics.” And I wanna go, “What?” My faith influences everything I do. And I believe if you have a personal faith, whatever it is, to act as though it doesn’t influence your decision-making is very naïve and disingenuous. I realize people are trying to say, “I have faith, but I’m not gonna . . . I’m not gonna let anybody else tell me what to do.” I understand that, but . . . but I think that we have to really just honestly acknowledge that either your faith or your lack of faith, or your beliefs or your lack of beliefs color every decision you make. Your worldview is colored by your beliefs. My beliefs about God – the fact that I believe that God is a creator; my beliefs that . . . that He cares about everybody that He’s made; my beliefs that Jesus is the Savior of the world – those things color and shape every single decision I make. And I think then that politicians are shaped in exactly the same way – by whatever their religious beliefs are. And I don’t know how you can separate those. Neither do I think that . . . As I’ve said, I don’t think it’s the role of government to change culture. I think it’s the role of the church to change culture. So I’m not insisting that a politician have the same necessarily . . . necessarily the same belief system I do. I just want them to acknowledge that their belief system will influence their decisions, whatever that is.
Recorded on: 12/11/07
Discuss
Josh Friedman on January 18, 2008, 10:59 AM
Religion should play NO role in government. Religious people can play as much of a role as they want.
There's a big difference between people passing law based on religious principals, and passing law the expresses religion. Thankfully our constitution expressly forbids the latter
Josh Friedman on January 18, 2008, 3:59 PM
Religion should play NO role in government. Religious people can play as much of a role as they want.
There’s a big difference between people passing law based on religious principals, and passing law the expresses religion. Thankfully our constitution expressly forbids the latter
Doug Newman on April 4, 2008, 1:50 PM
The Absurdist is correct. We must maintain a secular state.
Ms. Warren exhibits here much of the same logic as do other fundamentalists who praise religion but seem ignorant of the Constitution. I think Osama Bin Laden is one of those people.
Doug Newman on April 4, 2008, 5:50 PM
The Absurdist is correct. We must maintain a secular state.
Ms. Warren exhibits here much of the same logic as do other fundamentalists who praise religion but seem ignorant of the Constitution. I think Osama Bin Laden is one of those people.
Attila Csanyi on September 21, 2008, 4:42 PM
The only “role” for government is to be completely neutral about religion. That is the meaning of the First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, i.e. a set of prohibitions re. what “congress”, i.e. the govt. must not do.
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