The Pope

Many times the public are skeptical about voting for someone that is Catholic. I still remember learning that the very first Catholic president that got elected was John F. Kennedy. I remember thinking "wow I can not believe that it took so long for a Catholic person to get elected" since I myself am Catholic. I use to wonder why this was. Then I remember a teacher telling me later on that it has to do a lot with the Pope. Apparently many people believe that the Pope will somehow control the White House through the President, if a Catholic president was to be elected- mostly because the Pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and often times Catholic people will listen to the Pope. For this reason a lot of people are afraid to vote for Catholics, but as time progresses things are starting to change and more Catholics are being elected.   

Abortion and Religion

It seems that ever since women started to stand up for their rights and for control of their own bodies abortion has continued to grow as an issue. Even though this issue is suppose to be a political issue, it also somehow became intersected with religion. In a gallup poll, majority of Christians are against abortion. Majority of those who are not religious are for abortion. Also the polls show that among Christians, those that go to church more often are more against abortion. As for the political issue of abortion- religion has become a big part of it. Those who are usually religious lobby against abortion, but I believe that they should be kept separate. It seems to never work well when religion and politics mix together.

Presidents

Today I wondered why is it that we never had a Jewish president or a Morman president. I wondered why religion has become such a big part of politics. I wondered why it matters what religion someone is. Why are people judged on their religion? Does religion impact their judgement? I personally do not understand this and I feel like religion does not really play a role in a president's ability to lead the United States. I feel like being part of the United States means diversity. So why are we not actually applying this when we vote for our representatives?

atheist president

When looking at the polls for who the people America would vote for it is clearly stated that those who are atheist would come last. I wonder why this is. Why do people continuously put religion or in this case lack of religion at focus. Does it really matter if a person has a religion or not? Does having a religion or lack of religion make a person any greater or lesser of a president? I personally think not. When I think about myself and my religion, I do not think my religion really creates my opinions I have about politics. In the Gallup poll , atheist came dead last and surprisingly homosexuals and mormons were ahead of atheists. Again why can not the people of America understand that voting for a President should not have anything to do with what kind of religion the person is. Being a hopeful person, I am going to think that this will change someday.

Gay marriage

One of the biggest debates today is about gay marriage. In the country where approximately 8.8 million people are gay, lesbian, and bisexual one would think that gay marriage would be passed in a country that is all about freedom. So why not freedom to marry whomever one would want to? I for one believe that anyone should have to right to marry whoever they want to. To me personally excluding that LGBT community from marrying whoever they want to is discrimination, much like how African Americans use to be discriminated against. When I ask myself why is not gay marriage already passed in the United States, I can not help but think it is because of religion. Religion seems to play a big part in the role of the gay marriage debate. A majority of Americans are Christians, which in most Christian religions teaches that a relationship between two men is forbidden and wrong. Though this is taught in a lot of Christian religions, does not the Constitution state separation of church and state. So why do we not follow this? I hope that for the future of American that this does change and that someday in the future gay marriage will pass.

Obama and religion

When I think back to the period of the 2008 presidential election, it seems that religion immediately pops into my head. In my opinion it seems that the United States has this certain obsession with religion, even though there is suppose to be a separation of church and state. I can still remember our current president- Barrack Obama being constantly accused of being a Muslim. Many articles were written about his religion, articles such as this (click me), titled "CNN debunks false report about Obama". I can still remember rumors being started about Obama just because he supposedly was a Muslim. I can not help but think so what if he is Muslim? Does it really matter what religion someone is? Why does this affect our society so much? Over time I hope that this changed and that people focus on what is really important in selecting a presidential candidate- politics.