The deal about religious freedom and religion in politics

Democrats are picking at what they perceive to be weak spots on the Right, thus, they started the contraceptive brouhaha and turned it into a Religious Right Hate Women and Deny Their Ownership of Their Own Their Bodies. Nancy Pelosi jumped the shark by parading Sandra Fluke before the nation -- a thirty year old "useful idiot" who went to Georgetown just so she could agitate for contraceptive coverage.

In the meanwhile, the Whitehouse is advising the Catholic Church that enlightened technocrats within the enlightened State have solved the problem of the Church being forced to provide contraceptives and hope that all will be well before election time. Not to worry, though, polls show Catholics are still on the Obama train.

Obama, Democrats and the Left, for the most part, underestimate the power of religion in America, but the Right has got to get their act together, if they want to provide a united front against statism. Religious people, of all people in America, should understand the danger of a powerful State which is constantly invigorated and strengthened by an interventionist government. Obamacare is just getting started, and religious groups are just one of the first groups to be jerked around and patronized.

The worst thing that Christians can do is pull in and isolate themselves from humanists who might be spiritually fit but don't belong to an organized religion. On Glenn Beck's show today, Glenn violated his own openmindedness when it comes to variety of spiritual experiences, something he should have ingrained in his thought by now. Glenn and Pat Gray talked as if a person is not an evangelical type Christian then they just can't understand goodness. I know Beck doesn't believe this, but many good intentioned religious people can become closeminded when they feel under attack. And anyone listening to Beck for the first time would think Beck is a religious fanatic, not the good kind of fanatic.

Although Christianity as practiced by fundamentalists is under attack, Christians should be better than the attackers and show the type of humility and openmindedness that inspires admiration. I don't mean openmindedness which violates principles to get along, but the type of openmindedness that views spirituality with a broad lens. It's only when Christians shift to the political realm in an effort to enforce their beliefs on others that Christianity becomes a problem. All rational, good, moral people understand and admire strong Christian men and women who walk like they talk, don't force anyone and humbly speak their message when the opportunity arises. I know that "good" and "moral" are subjective terms, but we all understand basically what the terms relate to -- honesty, integrity, good humor, sincerity, humility, charity, etc.

As Glenn has said before, and must have temporarily forgotten today, as Pat Gray preached his message of intolerance and ridicule regarding secularist humanists, Christians should follow the lead of MLK and Gandhi -- let the attacks bounce off of them and resist playing tit for tat -- Love in spite of hate against you. It's difficult, but it leads to better results than political battles seeking the power to coerce. Fight for total liberty, even the liberty to sin, as your religions sees sin, as long as no one else is harmed, and all will be well. It's a matter of attraction, not promotion -- of persuasion, not coercion -- of competition and cooperation, not power to force against the will.