Needed: Freedom from religion in politics and government

It's getting to the point where my preferred candidate for President would be a self-avowed atheist, or at least an agnostic.  Perfection, of course, would be a general understanding and acknowledgment that a candidate's religion--or lack thereof--has no bearing on that candidate's qualifications for elected office.

My guess is that most Americans already feel that way.  However, far too many apparently do not accept that reality, if the rhetoric of the Republican presidential nominating contest, and a recent poll conducted in today's primary states of Mississippi and Alabama, are reliable indicators.

First, the public opinion poll, since it's from the two states that are holding elections today.  It asked people about their beliefs on whether President Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim.  As it turns out, most Republican voters in Mississippi and Alabama apparently think that President Obama is a Muslim.

Admittedly, this one caught me by surprise, because it seemed to me that this issue had been settled long ago and so there was no lingering public interest in asking the question again.  Yes, the various juvenile attempts at snippy humor have not escaped me; I can laugh at things like that--ha, ha--and move on.  There's no need to dwell crude humor.

But to hear that ". . .about half still believe he is Muslim and about 1 in 4 believes his parents’ interracial marriage should have been illegal. . ." as described in an article on today's latimes.com was surprising.  Follow the link and read it if you want to learn some of the details of the poll results.  It's not an attractive profile of the Republican voters in Alabama and Mississippi.

This has been said before, but let's say it again:  Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but there's only one set of facts.  People who believe that Barack Obama is Muslim and not Christian are simply ignorant of facts and of reality.

(Here's a note especially for those readers from other countries who might be confused about this American preoccupation with religion and government:  President Obama is factually known to publicly attend Christian church services, and he is acknowledged as of the Christian faith by various Republican spokespeople.  Continuing for non-American readers:  Obama is a Democrat; Republicans are mostly anti-Obama; Democrats are liberals and on the left side of politics; Republicans are conservatives and on the right side of politics; blue is the color for Democrats, and red is the color for Republicans.  Red Americans can be pretty intense about their Christian religion; blue Americans are much more casual about the subject.  Yes, it's a lot of labels, and it's a distraction from the important needs of running the country.  But, we seem to enjoy the entertainment of these distractions.)

In addition to this nonsense about President Obama, we also have to put up with the constant observations that many conservative Christian Republicans are distrustful of Republican candidate Mitt Romney because he is of the Mormon religion.  Mr. Romney is not my choice for President, but this criticism about his religion is nonsense, too.

These people have nothing of value to contribute, so they fall back on prejudicial attitudes that were last popular during the Dark Ages and the days of the Inquisitions.

A political candidate's religion has nothing to do with how well that person will be able to fulfill the responsibilities of elected office.  Instead, the skills that are needed include things like fairness, creativity, diplomacy, openness, ethics, knowledge, inquisitiveness, awareness of future possibilities and intelligence.

Skills can come along with any religion, or with no religion.

That's all for now on this subject.  The election results from Alabama and Mississippi will be interesting.  More on that at a later time.