My jaw almost hit the floor when I read this post. Are we not forgetting about the the amount of so-called Christians out there who openly practice bigotry and openly support a war that is taking the lives of millions of innocent Iraqis? It is beyond me how religion even factors in politics. Doesn't God expect that we love our neighbours regardless of creed. It is laughable to even consider not supporting someone based on something like religion. As stated so many times in this thread Islam is a peaceful religion it is just a shame that the mass-media and propaganda peddlers would have us believe that every Muslim is a terrorist. Sure there are extremists out there who blight the reputation of millions of peaceful Muslims. One just needs to look at the KKK most clansmen carry out their racist acts in the name of Jesus. I guess the media machine has aceived it's goal....distracting the masses with petty allegations whilst taking the focus off the real issues in society.

Well I finally read the entire thread and I must concurr with the OP. I don't believe I can vote for him either. That slight chance that he may harbor promuslim tendencies is the deciding factor for me.
Lets hope Hillary makes a comeback shall we? and then this will be a non issue.

Holy schneikies! I just realized this guy got banned!..i take it back, what I said above I take it back, I agree with everyone ele on this thread I will vote for him!

[edit on 6-1-2008 by Mogwai]

I'm going to say something, as a non-religious person, that totally bothers me that I have to say: a candidate's religious beliefs matter to me. Frankly I feel a little vomit rising in my throat at the very fact that this is true. I want to be able to say that religion doesn't matter, but it does. For me, it mostly matters in how the candidate reacts to a given situation based on his or her religious beliefs.

In the case of Obama, I am actually not concerned (also, please note that he does not claim to be a Muslim). If Tom Cruise were running for president, I'd be concerned. I am worried about Huckabee. I am also worried about Romney. I am not worried in regards to Ron Paul's religious beliefs, nor Hillary Clinton's. I am worried about McCain's. I was extremely worried about GWB.

I suppose that what I should actually say is that religious beliefs sometimes matter to me when an election is on the line. It depends on the religion and how extreme an interpretation of it the candidate holds. I am as fearful of Christian and Jewish extremists as I am of Muslim extremists. All Abrahamic religions make me nervous, due to the inherent danger of hardline interpretation. Scientology frightens me. Elements of Hinduism, Shinto, and Confucianism frighten me. I am least concerned with Gnosticism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Wicca. From a secular perspective, militant atheism frightens me and I am least concerned with run-of-the-mill atheism and agnosticism.

What I most look for in a leader is a prudent adherence to rational thought and the scientific method -- someone who is capable of examining an event, arriving at his or her own conclusions through means of logic, and reacting accordingly without having to sacrifice a lamb to gain inspiration for a course of action. Now if that rational, thinking person also happens to believe in some sort of creator... I don't have an inherent problem with that. Belief in God wasn't a problem for Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Boyle, Faraday, Mendel, Kelvin, Planck, and to some extent, Spinoza and Einstein (who basically sided with Spinoza in the God debate). They were men of science and logic who were able to hold belief in a sort of God without it ultimately clouding their judgment. It's a shame there aren't more politicians like that, isn't it?

I should also say that I would not be comfortable with someone who thought in terms of heartless science alone. I would still expect my leader to operate within the confines of the constitution. I would still expect ethical behavior from my leader.

/tn.


[edit on 6-1-2008 by teleonaut]

Wow, the GOP has nothing but race, sexism, and bigotry left.

"Sure we screwed the country up, killed thousands of US Troops in a Civil War, gave billions of taxpayer dollars to billionaires, destroyed the economy, ran a child sex ring in Texas, but he's black/muslim/ she's a woman!"

They know this will be a landslide election and need to do anything they can, like pandar to their base voters, KKK, Neo Nazis, WKK, CC, so forth. Just wait for the next Mega Church Sunday where again KKK Grand Wizards and GOP Senators will speak side by side against the evils of gays while protecting pedophiles like Bobby Stumbo and Mark Foley.

Like I stated previously religion doesn't matter for me. Sure I consider myself a Christian, but far be it from me to deny an honest, insightful and hardworking man a position he deserves due to his religious beliefs. It's funny how no matter how we try there never truly will be a seperation of church and state. It seems this philosophy lies dead in the water due to the fact that the so called "War on Terror" is basically a religious battle. Good vs. Evil, God vs. Lucifer... but who determines who is good and who is evil?

In every religion there are extremists and in every religion there are those who take their beliefs too seriously. That's the problem with books like the Koran and the Bible the essence of the text comes down to interpretation. One scripture could be understood a hundred different ways. So therefore one Christians beliefs are not identical to anothers, nor do one muslims beliefs mirror another muslims. It is unfair to say that all Muslims are the same, It's like stating that all flowers are the same or all cars are the same. It seems to me like this whole situation has turned into a witch hunt - in the words of NOFX "it seems witches are in season, you'd better fly your flag and be aware, Of anyone who might fit the description, diversity is now our biggest fear".

[edit on 6-1-2008 by AbsoluteLegend]

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
of course it would bother me... white people were never enslaved en masse on a racial basis and led out of africa against their will...

i'm sorry, but this is an idiotic and hardly veiled claim of reverse racism.

How many centuries will we have to tolerate reverse racism for the sins of our ancestors?
Is the black race to weakend by the enslavation of their ancestors that 200+ years later they are still given a pass on reverse racism at its finest?

How many black presidents must we have before we can't blame the slave trade for reverse racism?


[edit on 7-1-2008 by Ben Miller]

As mentioned earlier.... Barack Obama does not agree with everything his church states. No point in trying to make church statements into Racist insinuations regarding Obamas faith. It just doesn't add up.

Just because the Church wishes to get it's members to be proud of their heritage, and to uplift the community, does not mean that their aims are racist. Just because Obama belongs to the church does not mean that he is racist, nor that he agrees with every statement the church makes.

Not every Christian thinks having a Nazi Pope is a good thing either. It doesn't mean that being Christian is bad.

The only thing racist, is the remark that the Church is anti white.

Let me see if I get this straight. Some posters here don't like Obama because he is supposedly a Muslim? Oh! I forgot that claim has been seriously questioned. He has a muslim name but that's because he was named after his father! Afterall he was only a child when he accompanied his step father to a mosque in a muslim country, and furthermore to be a Muslim you have to declare knowingly that you are one! Let's see. He is a Christian!? Maybe not the right type of Christian after all! Look at the church he attends! My gosh it's AFROCENTRIC!!! Those racist AFROCENTRISTS! They do not follow the EUROCENTRIC LINE which everybody knows is unbiased and totally true! HE WANTS TO THINK FOR HIMSELF! That should disqualify him. Whew! for a moment there I thought I couldn't come up with a POLITICALLY CORRECT reason to not vote for him. Now I don't have to fall back on the fact that he is BLACK! THE DIVERSITY OF RELIGOUS SECTS HAVE SAVED ME. HALLELUJAH I HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM MY RACIST SELF!!!