“Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom…. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.”

Who spoke these words, the head of an Islamic state or the president of an evangelical association? Unfortunately, this odious phrase was uttered by Mitt Romney, who is running for president of the United States.

This is an excerpt from Romneys’ much anticipated “Faith in America” speech — or should I say sermon?

Does a democracy require religion? Look to enlightened Europe for the answer, only a tiny percentage of Europeans attend church. Christianity is dead in most European nations; it doesn’t influence culture, politics, art or the way most people live their lives. The only true believers in Europe are the Muslim immigrants, and if they had their way they would turn back the clock to the Dark Ages.

Europe is on the ascendancy and the Euro reigns supreme — only a fool would argue that the European democracies need religion.

Is religion conducive to freedom? I would argue the opposite: Religion stifles freedom and self-expression. All of the world’s theocracies are bastions of misogyny, injustice and intellectual stupor.

We don’t need to believe in a deity to hunger for freedom, and to advance the cause of freedom.

Indeed, freedom requires freedom from region. That’s why our beloved Constitution (which doesn’t mention God, Jesus or any religion) sets forth the doctrine of the wall of separation between church and state.

Regrettably, we still have a long way to go to banish God from the public arena. It’s sacrilegious to the Constitution that “In God We Trust” appears on our currency and that the phrase “under God” is allowed to remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. We ought to end the spectacle of a president-elect sworn into office by placing his hand on the Bible. The Good Book belongs in libraries and church pews — not in the halls of power.

I hope that all those who cherish freedom and our Constitution (both freethinkers and people of faith) will join me in my battle to banish God from the public arena.

The first step in banishing God from government is by rejecting pandering politicians like Mitt Romney who invoke God in their speeches, not in an attempt to please the Almighty, but in a crass attempt to garner votes.

REFERENCES:

“Monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents.” ….. Christopher Hitchens

1. God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It (Plus)
2. So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State
3. The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America
4. God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time