A few months ago, my wife and I drove across country, taking the southern route (Interstate 40) from New Mexico across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee. We knew in advance we would gain some new cultural insight viewing the heartland of America and we were not disappointed. In Gilmore,(check) Texas, we passed The World’s Largest Cross, an 80’ behemoth with a billboard promising a “genuine spiritual experience” should we stop in for a visit. We declined, preferring instead a genuine good cup of coffee, as rare in the heartland as liberal humanists (we found several other crosses en route of the same height and design leading us to ponder that someone has a very good scam going). In Arkansas, we viewed another billboard admonishing parents to beat their children according to Scripture. I wish I was kidding here. Having been around children most of my adult life, this put me in a gloomy state for the next several hours. Finally, 900 miles and three states later, I saw my first billboard with both the words JESUS and LOVE together in the same sentence. I felt a lot better.

These memories came back to me during this particular week as Muslims in Sudan were willing to kill over a teddy bear and the Republican candidates were preparing their own private intramural holy war, each pandering to the Christian Right by trying to out-God the other. Call it Vote-Sucking for Jesus. This would be amusing if it wasn’t so crass, shabby, and downright self-serving. We have Rudy Giuliani vowing to resume the Crusade against Islamic Fascism while embracing the nearest thing to Christian Fascism, namely an endorsement by evangelical con-artist, Pat Robertson. Ol’ Flippin’ Mitt Romney has been forced to tie himself in knots over his Mormon faith, but fear not. He’ll manage to be or say whatever it takes to get elected. If he were running in Israel, he’d be wearing a yarmulke and professing his newly-acquired Jewish faith. John McCain has avoided this folly, not forgetting that he got trounced in 2000 for daring to (rightly) condemn Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance”.

And then there’s Mike Huckabee. I really want to like this guy. Not only does he come across as genuine, but he seems to understand what the word “compassionate” means in the term “Compassionate Conservative”. He appears affable and approachable and apparently plays a mean electric guitar. But if he’s running as a Christian who happens to be an American as opposed to an American who happens to be a Christian, we might have a problem. One that the writers of the Constitution would readily understand.

For one of my life lessons is that people who really are godly (holy, spiritual, etc) don’t go crowing about it. And if I had a question for these guys, it would be, “If you’re godly, why are you lusting for secular power so badly?” The idea that God chooses American presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush for example) could make an atheist out of anyone. Jesus, of course, understood this dynamic. When the Jewish Zealots pressed him to be a political leader in their fight against Rome, he made it clear that he had a higher priority. His shrewd observation of rendering unto Caesar meant that one should focus on the spiritual aspects of life and let the secular take care of itself. Wise words, but then again, he didn’t have much money at the time.

Historically, when Christians start getting overly enthusiastic about their religion, people wind up getting burned at the stake. I think (hope, pray) that we in America are passed that point. As a spiritual mutt, I personally have no problem with a Christian President as long as he or she actually acts like a Christian (personally, I think the world’s mightiest superpower would be better served by a Buddhist at the helm). Acting like a Christian means that you don’t spend a trillion dollars on war and weaponry while cutting billions for food, fuel aid and health care to those Americans in need. You would think that even the dimmest of readers of the New Testament would figure that one out.

But whoever becomes president might want to consider the long view on this issue of religious intolerance, it being the unexpected curse of the 21st Century (no one saw that coming, did they?) There are presently six billion Lutherans, Jains, Atheists, Sikhs, Taoists, Rastafarians, Shia Muslims, Bahai, Zen Buddhists, Orthodox Jews, Amish, Anabaptists, Voudons, Unitarians, Southern Baptists, Druze, Cabbalists, Hasids, Pagans, Mormons, Greek Orthodox, Evangelicals, Hutterites, Methodists, Wiccans, Agnostics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish Reconstructionists, Sunni Muslims, Mahayana Buddhists, Hindus, Confucists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Tibetan Buddhists, Jews for Jesus, Animists, Seven Day Adventists, Peyote Cultists, Cargo Cultists, Russian Orthodox, Shintoists, Presbyterians, Shamanists, Reform Jews, Roman Catholics, and practitioners of Santeria among so many others inhabiting the same planet.

Squabbling over which god is better than the other on our little globe makes about much sense in the vastness of the universe as a hundred ants fighting over a breadcrumb. It’s all the same God. It’s all the same source. It will be a great day in the spiritual evolution of the human race when we all finally figure that one out. One wonders when a world leader will finally have the nerve and the vision to proclaim it as well.

On the whole, a nice piece of writing. Just a few observations:

Point 1: Sorry, not the same God. Pagan idea of deity, Christian idea of deity, not so similar. Unless you'd really like to make the argument that the ol' Christian God the Father was a womanizer with a very jealous wife and about a hundred illegitimate children, . Further, the personal God of Mormonism has very little in common with the incomprehensible deity of eastern thought. In these debates, details tend to matter quite a bit.

Point 2: Please expound why a Buddhist at the helm would be better than a Christian? China, India and Tibet have all had several thousand years of solidly Buddhist leadership between them. I don't actually see much in the organization of their societies worth emulating. In fact, I would argue that we have done a much better job of actually ensuring equality and justice on just about every metric then they have (and please don't pull up the whole, "That's because of Secular Humanism" argument, not true. Religious Contributions to Progress = Abolishment of Slavery, Empowerment of Women and Establishment of the Welfare State. Secular Humanism arrived rather late to this particular table and has a very mixed record [that's a nice way of saying they've largely fucked things up]). This includes economic, medical, scientific, and social measures. Just take your pick and ask yourself if you would like to live in China, Tibet, or India (hint: Human Rights Violations) or one of the developed countries of the Western World. This doesn't even take into account that much of their more recent progress is a direct result of our tinkering (when I say recent, I'm speaking in the sense of historical recent, ~50 years). Clearly, "enlightenment" doesn't necessarily translate into progress.

Point 3: Please point out the bit of history where "Christians riled up about their religions result in people being burned at the stake." The clear cases of this (over a 2000 year old history) are actually very, very rare (btw, Salem witches were hung, not burned). Please don't drag up the Inquisition, as most scholars with any intellectual honesty rightly classify these events as political (and not religious) purges, much as the Holocaust, the Gulags, or Mao's murder of some 100 million of his fellow "patriots" had very little to do with any real "belief."

Point 4: There is a very solid argument to be made that 100 years of American (often arrogant and mostly assholic) domination of the world has resulted in a much, much better globe. Again, apply the "live test." No American Pre-eminence: No modern Japan, South Korea, or Europe. There would also likely be an enormously dominant and not very unpleasant Russia rather than the only moderately dominant and not so nice Russia we are living with now.

That's the tricky bit about trying to pick on only one or two threads in a very elaborate weaving, it fails to give you any idea of what the actual whole looks like.

Perhaps we all come from the same source (I believe we do), and perhaps we're all headed to the same place (I suspect we are), and maybe it's all the same God, but you just can't tell me that there is no difference between societies which practice different religions.

And there is the rub.

You yourself expressed a preference for Buddhist running the US, rather than a Christian. Apparently that's because you see a difference between religions and how societies are shaped by them.

I think our first amendment has saved us from the problems that haunt so many countries still today. Most cannot seperate their government from their religeon. Amazing how many people have died and still kill for their "God". We are truely the best example(although far from perfect) for the world to follow at this time, even though we still have a christian/judeo type influenced govt. its premise is to allow freedom of all expression and not let it interfere in the govt, unless the people's representatives allow it.

As long as man cannot accept his fleeting existance and fears death, religeon will have a stronghold and guide many humans through fear and promises of heaven and rewards for acts commited in the name of their God. The 67 virgin thing that muslems have really amazes me, as much as those hale bop comet nuts who had change by their corpes for the vending machines on the UFO. and these were supposed to be highly educated and intellegent humans.. YOUR DEAD, WHAT DO YOU NEED VIRGINS FOR????? YOUR DEAD.. WHY DO YOU NEED STREETS OF GOLD??????

Just as i want the jehovah witness to leave me alone, I want my government to leave me alone. let me do as i please in my own house as long as i dont bother or harm others. Protect my borders and eject all those who are not here legally, protect our trade and support our milltary, and when involved in military action let the military run the show until its over. and i want my government to be fiscally responsible, and do awayy with programs that should be privately funded. I want a candidate who is not afraid to tell Americans that they have the right to pursue happiness, and be successful, but you also have the right to fail and be accountable for your actions.

As for God, I hope he/she is having better luck creating the next being on a planet in a galaxy far away from our influence. I know if I were God i wouldnt want people worshiping me. Just appreciate what you got while it exist and help others when you can and dont be afraid that life is just life, and when your gone, your gone.