Texas Faith - God and religion have gone missing in the presidential race?

Is our electoral process better off without the polarizing issues of faith-based politics at center stage? Or does the absence of explicit moral and religious expression impoverish our political debate? Our Texas Faith panel weighs in:

Texas Faith is a weekly column at Dallas Morning News managed by Editors William McKenzie and Wayne Slater, the material is contributed by several panelists including Mike Ghouse, for all responses visit http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2012/07/texas-faith-is-it-good-or-bad-that-god-and-religion-have-gone-missing-in-the-presidential-race.html/

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas

Absence of faith will not impoverish political debate; in fact, it will enrich it with a focus on the most important economic need of the day: jobs.

Congress, Senate or the President is not in the business of establishing or supporting a religion; their responsibility is to be a catalyst and serve Americans in the pursuit of their happiness and economic freedom.

Faith should not be a factor in this election, as both parties stand to lose; the Democrats worry about the Catholic vote and the GOP stands to lose if they make an issue out of Romney’s faith, it would mean back peddling.

Social issues will be played out by the Democrats; the anti-GLBT-abortion-immigration stance of GOP will be a fodder to the Democrats. The CBS poll in May discovered that 62% of Americans “believe that same-sex unions should be recognized by law.” While we remain divided on abortion, Romney cannot afford to flip flop on immigration.

GOP may not even succeed in carving up an enemy out of Sharia. First of all, American Muslims are not asking for it, and secondly it will not pass the House and Senate, let alone the president signing it. Democrats will hit them hard for squandering public time on a non-existent issue.

GOP’s chorus about repealing Obama care on the first day in office will fall flat on its face, unless both the houses and the Presidency is Republican. The Republicans would risk losing votes of the young people benefiting from insurance coverage of their parents.

As a disclosure, I am Moderate Republican, and when I posted a note on Facebook and my blog congratulating fellow Americas upon Judge Roberts’s decision, an incredible number of Republican men and women came out of the closet and appreciated the decision. Thus we have Obama Republicans now.

Absence of faith talk will not be missed, our nation is operating on Maslow’s hierarchy theory, and Jobs is our priority, food is more necessary than faith, and abuse of religion for politics may not work this time.

I hope the debates remain focused on economy, and for entertainment they can resort to Presidential dogs, vacations, Kissing Children, pipe line, fund raising and the price of rice in China.

MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. The blog www.TheGhousediary.com is updated daily.

Yes to Heaven; for the Godless and Godloaded

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/12/yes-to-heaven-for-godless-and-godloaded.html

Finally the moderate majority has spoken; yes a significant number of Americans believe that God**(note for my atheist friends below) is God of all people and that everyone will go to heaven if they are good to what surrounds them; life and environment. They made it clear that every religion will have equal access to heaven. In summary, they expressed God is not discriminatory; he (she or it) honors every one regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. What a revelation! Thanks to the Pew survey.

The undefined purpose, or the essence of religion is to bring peace and balance to an individual and what surrounds him; life and environment. You can apply this formula to every faith and it works.

It is sheer arrogance to believe that religion is the exclusive source of morality, which is the internalization of social and cultural values. Whether you are a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Wicca, Pagan or an Atheist, a significant sample of you would behave the same in public in any given city in America when it comes to telling the truth, fidelity and such a good thing as respecting other people’s rights.

To be fearful is as human as to be peaceful, however fear pushes insecurity and insecurity causes one to do weird things, it is in this instance one needs religion (to the ones who subscribe) more than any other time. Life is about balance and God is that balance, and we must not let that equilibrium be disturbed to protect our tail, as it will adversely affect it and would take a long time for recovery.

The conservatives find it safe not to think or look at things from a fresh perspective; they are comfortable in their world and get fearful when a new approach is presented. Then they resort to the idea of annihilating the men behind such ideas and go on a propaganda blitz to decimate their "manufactured" enemy.

Much of the "understanding" of Bible, Qur’aan, Torah or any holy books is produced by such conservative self appointed Guardians. Their role in holding on to the original scripture must be lauded, but their ownership role in preventing an understanding that promotes peace and balance in the society must be questioned, because that was the undefined purpose of religion; peace through justice.

The essence of “follow me” by Jesus, “surrender to me” by Krishna and “submit to my will” by Allah, and similar phrases in different faiths have been grossly misunderstood and projected in literality. Anyone of those phrases mean becoming like me the creator; a being with no barriers, no hate, no malice, no ill-will and willing to hug the rejected ones by the society as that reduces conflicts which leads to peace and justice; the ultimate goal of all religions. Leadership evolves for Atheist or any group for that matter, there is always some one who shares his or her moderation that appeals to the others and becomes a system for the unintended followers.

The conservatives tend to monopolize that message without realizing that no body owns God, religion or their deliverers. Jesus, Krishna, Muhammad and all other teachers gave that message to each one of us, not just Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhist or Zoroastrians. By claiming and owning them, each group has done gross injustice in reducing them from their universal stature to pigeoning them up with in divisive cells. We need to free them from these holes. Religion is about freedom, freedom from hate, ill wil, ignorance.... which binds us and tenses us up till we die or find the release.

The guardians of every faith must muster up the courage to push the “Refresh Button” and work for co-existence and peace. The majority of the public believes and practices in goodness. If we drop the idea of an imaginary enemy, then we can see that everyone will go to heaven. God has not made a deal with any one behind other’s back to do favors to one or the other, if he (she or it) were to do that kind of nonsense, we have not understood the creator or we don’t need him. Creation is about balance and justice and not monopolies and grouping. Religions remove the imaginary fears, if it does not, then one has not gotten his or her religion.

All religions are about goodness, it is our bias that prevents us from understanding it. I can quote Qur’aan on the subject and encourage others to push their refresh button and share their scriptures, you will find them. It is about co-existence, one world, one creation, one cause, one source and one humanity. In the case of our Atheist friends, their understanding of the matter is their scripture.

There is a particular verse in Qur'aan where God assures his grace and heaven to every one who is good to his creation; life and matter. Furthermore he (she or it) reinforces with words like it does not matter if you are a Jew, Christian or any one, you are assured his grace if you care about his creation.

Qur'aan49:13 O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him (best in conduct) . Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

Qur'aan, Al-An'am, Surah 6:163-164: I ask whether I should seek any god besides God--when he is the Lord of all things. All people will reap the harvest of their own deeds; no one will bear another’s burden. Ultimately, all of you will return to your Lord, and he will resolve your disputes.

If we were to be called to account, each one of us is responsible for the good and bad we do to the fellow beings. No Imam, Rabbi, Pundit or Priestess will have the time to defend us, they have to take care of themselves for their own actions. Prophet Muhammad had said, if any one of you (his followers) were to do wrong to other humans, on such day of accounting, I will stand up for the other person, whether he is my follower or not, it was indeed a strong statement and a warning to be just.

** God is a common word referred to the cause of creation, big bang theory, amoeba splitting event or any other cause that sprang life and matter. God is not a being, God is not a guy sitting with WMD’s or a control freak. When life and matter came into being, there was a balance built into to sustain itself. Matter had the physical balance as in the case of planetary systems, while the life was embedded with the spiritual balance that we constantly strive to keep up with. That balance is love and that is peace that comes through justice. My Atheist friends need to push their refresh button to consider having an open mind towards using the word God as a common name for the cause of creation.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India, Multiculturism, Terrorism, Peace, Politics and Civic issues. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation, and presides the Foundation for Pluralism a He is the president of World Muslim Congress a think tank with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world and vice-Versa. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. Mike's Profile