As with a lot of people, I am weary of the bickering and nit-picking going back and forth between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Every word is scrutinized, its utterer attacked and in the meantime, the national media continuously beat us over the head with such trivial, non-issues nonstop. They pound and pound until they find another silly misspoken word, and wonder aloud if it will affect the November outcome. They believe the frequency of their reports makes the stories relevant and important.

Please.

With an expensive war raging on with no end in sight and no definition of victory; food and gas prices hitting the sky with many stuck with frozen wages or no jobs; the economy tanking; people needing affordable healthcare; and concerns over the environment, what issue commanded precious television coverage this weekend?

Religion.

Sunday night, I watched the first half of The Compassion Forum on CNN television, which was held at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa., a grilling of the Democratic candidates about their religious views. Republican nominee-apparent Sen. John McCain declined to participate.

Obviously there are people with voting litmus tests based on their religious views. I can understand how religion could tie in with abortion, “Rapture” as it relates to another Middle Eastern war or how strongly a president would weigh someone’s religious views in making appointments.

But, predicting who would make an effective president based on a Methodist versus United Church of Christ candidate is not relevant to me.

I think it is illogical to believe that someone who says he or she reads the Bible more often than his or her opponent will be a better president. Even if it did matter, people lie about or inflate their religiousness as they do about sex. Or, as with myself on the opposite end, I don’t discuss my beliefs except with a select few people and thankfully, many other people are the same way.

Despite the program’s title, appearing to be religious doesn’t mean someone will have compassion as a president. Look at the trail of evangelists and ministers over the years who have been caught stealing money or who were involved in sex scandals after standing in front of their congregations every Sunday. Don’t the alleged abuser-polygamists in the West think they are religious?

Clinton won the coin toss Sunday, so she commanded the first half of the forum that I listened to while I cooked. Dinner was ready after that, so I only caught part of Obama’s latter portion of the program. From what others have told me, it was much of the same type of questioning except for his being quizzed on his perception of the Muslim religion from living in Indonesia as a boy - which I did hear.

What I concluded from watching slightly more than half of the program is that apparently people not only have to be of “faith” (preferably Protestants, but always Christian) to win the presidency, they also have to divulge how often they read the Bible; believe when life begins; and speculate as to why God lets people suffer.

Aren’t these questions that mankind have struggled with for centuries? Should someone have to answer these questions to be elected president? The suffering question brought to mind the silly concept people used to pose: “Can God create a rock that even He can’t move?” and the popular book about bad things happening to good people.

Christian, Jewish and one Muslim asked questions, but no representatives from Eastern religions, atheists, Native American beliefs, Unitarians or ethical societies quizzed the candidates. Perhaps those voters aren’t “important” to the organizers - or maybe some were invited but they don’t believe in people basing votes on candidates’ religious views or on who is, or who appears to be the most devout - none of which is verifiable anyway.

Now let’s get back to the real, tangible issues that affect my family and me.

Let’s have a big, long television program on what all THREE candidates would do about the economy; then the next week do one on the war in Iraq; the next week on environmental concerns; then healthcare; and then maybe any other important issue.

Grill them on those issues. Hold them to the fire - religiously.

Also, this time, no one is excused from attendance.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Right Here in River City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.