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Do your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, influence your political opinions? Why?

Forgive me for asking, but what's a centrist?

I'm rediculously liberal, though I'd never *vote* liberal. Because the liberals are idiots.

I'm Pagan, so I think you can figure out where my political affiliation is. *coughgreencough*

I like the Green party, not only because they're like "ooo environmentaliness" but because they seem smart. They've got some good ideas for things to do, and they seem to be open minded enough not to ******** up other people's lives based on their own prejudices (*coughgaymarriagecough*)

Also, I'm Canadian (booya!), so that probably comes into play too. Because I don't really worry about US politics or anything. I just know Bush is an idiot... seriously. I don't care about his opinions or where he's from, the former he has a right to and the latter he can't control.

What I have a problem with is his stupidity. Sheer, utter stupidity.

I am a VERY strong believer that politics and religion should be kept seperatley. I believe that so strongly, in fact, that if I know someone up for election is going to make political descisions based on their religious beliefs, I don't vote for them, even if I agree with other aspects of their campaign. I did just this for several people on both a local and national level during this last election.

That's not to say the way I vote isn't influenced by religion. As an example, I usually put the environment before anything else when I'm voting on local issues or people who will affect that sort of thing.

One thing that really angered me recently is how the American bishop for the Roman Catholic Church declared that people who were pro-choise could not recieve the Eucharist. This is religion and politics meddling at the worst. Whether you're pro-life or pro-choise (and I can easily see both sides of the issue), this is basically religious intolerance. The bishop basically said that people who support abortion, whether they've had one or not, cannot get into heaven. I think this was a very bad ove on the part of the church, as I've heard of and know personally many people who have converted from Catholocism to Protestantism as a direct result of this.

Well, they are entitled to do so, I suppose, but the thing is, they're turning off many otherwise devout followers over this one single issue. And if you think about it, they they were trying to use it to directly affect American politics. In my home city, Colorado Springs, Catholics were told that if they vote for any canidates who support legal abortion, they could no longer accept the Eucharist.

I am a strong Democrat living in the middle of the Solid, Republican South... For a mock election at my school, my dad sat there and made sure I voted Bush... Scary... eek

If that election were real, that would have been illegal on so many levels.

i didn't know that! Mennonites are not supposed to hold any political office either.

that doesn't mean we don't get political, but it is in a more anarchic way.