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Historically, churches have been used by political candidates to promote themselves. It helps a guy to be seen by a few thousand people on a regular basis...appearing to be moral, upright, and have a lot in common with them.
Not to say that an atheist can't be a decent, moral person...but there's a reason that candidates go door-to-door to shake hands--they need to meet the people.
To admit that they are atheist is to remove them from a large social networking organization...and to remove something they have in common with their voters.
So it is acceptable to outright lie to the voters to get elected?
Personally, I don't care about the Presidents religion, just how he governs.
I remember in 8th grade a teacher asked the question "Which are we likely to see first, a black male president or a white female president?" Most of the class thought we'd never see either one during our lifetimes. I probably would've said the same thing about an atheist president, but I'm still somewhat young and have quite a few future elections ahead of me.. So now I'm going to say "Anything's possible."
I think we will have an athiest president if we haven't already, but I doubt they will admit to it in our lifetimes. This country is way too religious to make that claim anytime soon.
He never said it was acceptable, but I'm afraid it's a fact of politics.
I never could understand why we (in the US) get so upset when we find out our politicians are often not very moral. Afterall, they are politicians. I think people in Europe or Asia tend to be more pragmatic this way - they have lower expectations and are less disappointed since they do not tend to ride a phony moral high horse. Maybe that explains why we are always so gung ho about electing a religious person.
I never could understand why we (in the US) get so upset when we find out our politicians are often not very moral. Afterall, they are politicians.
People would have been far more upset with Bill Clinton if he said he wasn't religious after he became President than they were for his escapades in the Oral Office.
I really don't think so, but I'll try to stay optimistic here and say...maybe.
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