Religion in Politics

I've been told that in England and in other western european nations, it is laughable to bring up one's personal beliefs in a political debate. They simply don't belong in matters concerning the general public. I was shocked, not by the sentiment, but by my own willingness to tolerate the practice in America. I have always been annoyed when politicians wave their religious convictions like a flag to bypass intelligent discourse, but somehow I had never come to terms with how fundamentally ridiculous it was.

I think America's permissivity has something to do with the confusion of religion and morality. Most people I've spoken to back home tend to think that the two concepts are inseparable and nearly synonymous. If you take that for granted, there's a case to be made for using religon to reassure voters of one's morality, and for informing certain policy decisions. Fortunately, though, we don't need to rely on such divisive sources of moral decision-making. Religion is not morality, it is a very persuasive extrapolation of morality that is quite separate from its source. For that reason it's vulnerable to irrelevance and abuse, and is quite unsuitable for use in politics when simple conscience and history will do. Simple morality with no strings attached.

As long as I live in a country that tolerates and even encourages religion in politics, I worry that I'll need to fight a tiring battle across dogmatic flypaper before any meaningful issue comes up for discussion. When restricted by the nation's short attention span, it will probably be rare to arrive at all. I'd hate to give up on America because it's been pretty good to me so far, and has generally been a powerful progressive force in the world, but I'm concerned about our ability to be a good leader in the future if this situation continues. I might leave for greener and more secular pastures later in life.