I used to be an Evangelical. I remember voting in the 2000 election for him because he was "a man of God." I recently graduated high school, joined a "ministry training school" and spent my days praying for everything. I was a one-issue voter; candidates views on religion were far more important to me than any other issue.
I used to be an Evangelical. I remember voting in the 2000 election for George W. Bush because he was "a man of God", or so one of my spiritual leaders told me. During those years, I was a nineteen year old who recently joined a "ministry training school" and spent my days praying for everything. I was a reverend and I was a one-issue voter; candidates' views on religion were far more important to me than any other issue because I thought the Bible taught me to vote for a person of faith.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was a fundamentalist with narrow views of the world. As a fundamentalist, I adhered to my strict beliefs and I defended them aggressively. The Bible, literally interpreted, was the only important text in the world and my literal interpretation of the Bible was how I filtered everything that happened to me.
Most of my political beliefs came from my pastors. Every Evangelical church I attended had no issue with talking about political issues as if they were "moral" or "Christian issues." The pastors aggressively defended their beliefs, and associated those who didnât believe with "godlessness" or better yet, Satan. All the while, pastors I worked for used donations to lobby for certain political candidates without their congregations full knowledge.
Today I'm a liberal agnostic/atheist. A large part of my change in religious views came from living in and working among some of the leading Evangelical Christians. Evangelists like Jim Bakker, Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes all came through our inner circle. Another pastor I worked for visited the gubernatorial mansion at least once a month to "counsel" the Governor of Louisiana spiritually (both Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal) and was invited to visit the White House when George W. Bush was President.
The other reason I'm agnostic/atheist had to do with the amount of misuse of power and donated money I saw firsthand; all while living lives and taking vacations tax-free. These pastors I worked for or saw on TV were no longer "good." I saw corruption, greed and scandal in these ministers' lives and churches. Eventually, their abuse of power directly affected my life and I realized I couldn't believe them or their view of God.
The recent birth control debate has been infuriating and I can only hope its election politics. What if it's not, though? What if religious lobbyists keep trying to impose their religious "values" on non-religious people? I'm sure they will; after all when you feel you're on a mission from God to spread your morality everywhere, the political turf is your target platform.
Religious freedom and freedom from religion are terms I pay special attention to now. When someone cries "religious freedom" (as Catholic bishops did recently in the birth control debate, or as Rick Santorum did on his Facebook page today: https://www.facebook.com/...) I'm quick to look deeper into the issue to see if human rights or women's rights are being violated. Sadly, many times people claim their "religious freedom" is being violated this claim often violates rights of non-religious and non-fundamentalist people.
Churches I worked for were proud of their non-profit status, which served as a reminder of their freedom from a "worldly" government. Unfortunately, the government's absence meant that many of the young adults in my ministry training school worked full-time jobs as "interns" for several years without pay, health benefits or suitable housing.
In the United States, you are free to believe whatever you want but you are not free to violate other people's rights. In addition, your church is free to teach you what they want but they are not free to violate labor laws or endorse political candidates.
For more information on how to report a church that has violated state or federal laws visit: http://ffrf.org/....