Religion and Politics Make Strange Bedfellows

You know there was a study done once where test subjects were subjected to films while connected to a scanner that could detect what areas of the brain were being the most stimulated. What I remember about the study was that when subjects were exposed to things that they held as beliefs, whether they were religious beliefs or political beliefs, the exact same areas of the brain was most active.

The belief area.

But when presented with ideas that they opposed, a completely different area of the brain became the most stimulated area.

In short, we humans base our politics and religion on a system of beliefs, not a system of logic. Debate occurs when trying to justify beliefs with a logic system. And that is were you get “factual inaccuracies.”

Lies.

The reason I bring this up is that religion has re-entered presidential politics in a way that I haven’t seen since President Kennedy was attacked for being a Catholic.

With the comment by an evangelical Perry supporter who heads up a Dallas superchurch, that Mitt Romney was not really a Christian, Pandora’s box has truly been opened.

Rick Santorum was asked whether he thought Mitt Romney was a Christian and the answer came out in an interesting but halting way:

“Mitt Romney is a true, he says he’s a Christian. I believe he said Christian.”

See? He almost said it: Mitt Romney is a true Christian. But then he walked it back and said that he says he is a Christian.

Weak.

Michele Bachmann, when asked the same question absolutely punted.Dismissing the question as irrelevant. But it is not irrelevant to 23% of American voters who say that they would never vote for a Mormon for president.

“To make this a big issue is ridiculous right now, because every day I’m on the street talking to people. This is not what people are talking about.”

And that is the key really. You don’t have to really discuss this because you already have 23% of the people who will opt for the non-Mormon every time. In short, why discuss it? The deal is done.

But Herman Cain’s response to the same question was truly artful. He said that Mitt Romney was not a Christian without saying it.

“I am not going to do an analysis of Mormonism versus Christianity for the sake of answering that.”

See? Mormonism vs. Christianity? As if one were not the other?

Brilliant.