Lessons from Sen. Jim DeMint

• Feast countdown = 20
• Cravings = Waffle House pecan waffles, slightly crunchy
• Craving distractions = Buckling down for the 2 final weeks of the campaign

I'm back, and I'm here to disrupt the temporary radio silence that occurs in most amateur blogs.  Who knew that campaigns didn't pause for breath on Sunday nights? :)  It's been a sprint since my last post in July, but rest assured that I still observed my fast every Sunday, even though I nearly caved to my roommate's mac & cheese dinners several times.

Now on to the subject at hand... I've been reading Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven lately, and in a nutshell, it uses the story about a brutal murder committed by Morman fundamentalists to shed light on the Mormon faith/history and the inherent dangers of extremist religion (of any kind).  This latter part is what fascinates me most.  When people throughout history have placed religion above the law, or made them one in the same, the outcome was ultimately violence and persecution.

Think of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, the Taliban and modern-day jihadists.  These kinds of theocracies place power in the hands of a few who interpret the faith for everyone else and paint a stark picture of "the enemy".

Even as a person who loves and respects the teachings of the Bible, I am relieved that our nation had enough sense along the way to separate religion from law, subjective from objective.  I realize, though, that this belief is seen as blasphemy among many conservative Christians today.  Enter Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

I can't be sure of the audience, but I believe it was a CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) conference, where Senator DeMint lamented our country's current course.  I found this TV segment while flipping through the channels one night, and one particular part of his speech grabbed me.  In so many words, he said, "Wouldn't the world be so much better if we all held the same Judeo-Christian values?  Then, we wouldn't have hardly any need for government interference in our lives!"  Krakauer's warnings went off in my head.

I don't consider Senator DeMint to be an extremist, but I do believe that statements like these are inflammatory and narrow-minded.  Not only is it offensive to non-believers and people of other faiths, whose values are by default relegated beneath Judeo-Christian values, but it supposes that there is some kind of consensus among Christians and Jews on governance.  Quite the contrary.  Women's rights?  Homosexual rights?  Death penalty and criminal rehabilitation?  Provisions for the poor?  Substance use and entertainment?

So Senator DeMint implies that just one set of values would be adopted, likely of his own interpretation, and then the world would be off and running without a hitch, with government as a meek overseer.    

It's the same flawed reasoning that puts theocracies in power, and it's why our nation's early leaders decided that separating church and state was in our best long-term interest.  We don't all hold the same values, thanks to our freedoms in this country, and the government protects this by making the law impartial to religious argument.  It's what allows Senator DeMint to say what he wants at the pulpit.