religion and politics (with a back-at-ya twist!)

the ruddite's switch over the election campaign, from christian socialist to economic conservative, seems to say a lot about the state of conservative politics and its relationship to religious belief.

it is therefore with interest that i notice one of the republican front-runners in the US presidential race is a devout mormon.

but the headline for the linked news story says, Mormons won't run my White House, that is, he will leave his religion at the door.

i remember what i considered an outrageous comment from Amanda Vanstone, calling on all politicians to essentially do the same. (see this article, for example)


so how should we feel about one the world's self-appointed sheriff potentially being led by a devout adherent to what has in many places been rightfully given "cult" status?

about as uneasy as with their current president and his self-declared God-given right to wage war as he wills?

perhaps controversially, i would like those in politics to not necessarily wear their religion on their sleeve, but still to be genuine about what they believe, and the way it impacts their decisions.
where their religion causes them to care for the disadvantaged, reach out to the needy, i wouldn't mind knowing about it.

it's far better than finding out that it really only matters when the election looms nearer.

h/t to my dad!

jclds iconography

for my 50th post, i thought i'd do something a little naughty:

looking at mark’s blog I was impressed to find a link to lladro, the manufacturer of boutique statuettes. to my great mirth I found that one could purchase, among other luxurious items, this beautiful icon, entitled simply, missionaries.

anyone who has seen the australian made oscar-nominated short film, the messiah, as well as rushes from john safran’s pilot extreme mormons, not to mention trey parker and matt stone's (the creators of south park) orgazmo or even cannibal (do you think they have a past history involving the mormons?), i’m sure can’t but ask themselves if members of the church* of JCLDS have found for themselves a new icon.

it’s definitely quite different to the picture I have in my head, when thinking about christian missionaries back in the day – I just hope noone starts bowling up and venerating office workers unfortunate enough to be wearing a white shirt and black tie, asking for fingernail clippings – they’ve got to be worth at least a few indulgences, surely!

* it is perhaps worth mentioning that the group referred to as “the mormons” are not able to be registered as a church in some countries, rather are officially a cult, affirming the indubitably heretical nature of this group