Faith has an association in my mind - and now, sadly, in my heart - with blindness, hatred, and authoritarianism.
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United States President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are both "faith-based" Presidents - here is fragment from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18 page letter to GWB (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050900878.html):
The day will come when all humans will congregate before the court of the Almighty, so that their deeds are examined, The good will be directed towards Haven and evildoers will meet divine retribution. I trust both of us believe in such a day, but it will not be easy to calculate the actions of rulers, because we must be answerable to our nation and all others whose lives have been directly or indirectly affected by our actions.
All prophets, speak of peace and tranquillity for man -- based on monotheism, justice and respect for human dignity.
Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world -- that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of prophets -- and improve our performance?
Do you not think that belief in these principles promotes and guarantees peace, friendship and justice?
Do you not think that the aforementioned written or unwritten principles are universally represented?
Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets?
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So, what is Faith?
Main Entry: faith
Pronunciation: 'fAth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural faiths /'fAths, sometimes 'fA[th]z/
Etymology: Middle English feith, from Anglo-French feid, fei, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust -- more at BIDE
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
synonym see BELIEF
- on faith : without question
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The only definitions that I like are:
- fidelity to one's promises
- sincerity of intentions
...as that shows faith in your own personal strength to be ethical.
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...and now Katherine Harris - remember her in the 2000 election? - is so loyal and blind that she said:
"I have a 100 percent voting record with the Christian Coalition. I have a 100 percent voting record with the traditional values groups."
I guess that this is either a miracle that she has identical opinions to the Coalition, or she follows whatever they come up with as "faith". I hate to say this.
Other quotes from her interview that completely rub me the wrong way:
"...that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized, thinking that they needed to avoid politics and that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers." And George W. gets regular visits from Him.
"...But that's why we need the faithful and we need to take back this country. It's time that the churches get involved. Pastors, from the pulpit, can invite people to speak, not on politics, but of their faith." The Churches never shied away from politics.
"...If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians then in essence you are going to legislate sin. They can legislate sin. They can say that abortion is alright. They can vote to sustain gay marriage. And that will take western civilization, indeed other nations because people look to our country as one nation as under God and whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong. ..."
Don't vote for X, because he is a Jew! A vote for Y is a vote for Sin!
What's next? Stoning? Morality Police like in Iran, Afghanistan, and Sudan? A legal system based on an American Christian Sharia?
The faith-based political attitude leads us to the Imperial Executive Branch much as an authoritarian model leads us to proto-fascism. The people *will* follow, trust me.
You are either with us, or against us. If you question or oppose anything I want, you are an enemy. Your safety is directly linked to your ability to obey my commands. Dissent proves you are NOT Faithful; we must remove that part of the Constitution. We want a Loyalty Statement - the American Creed. Blindly trust your Leader as he is God incarnate.
I wish people didn't refer to their spiritual beliefs as their Faith - it should be their Love, but it shouldn't be Blind.
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