Will a nationalist/cosmopolitan divide be the political axis of the coming saeculum?

[Mikebert]

(11-02-2016, 09:59 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(11-02-2016, 05:14 AM)taramarie Wrote:

(11-02-2016, 03:52 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(11-01-2016, 04:41 PM)taramarie Wrote: Why the heck does America mix politics and religion ffs?

It's a values thing, of course.  As such, if one has a deep involvement in one value set, that value set is fixed and deeply imbedded.  The US is a large immigrant nation with remnants of a wide variety of cultures and values, so there are conflicts.

Some identify America as a religious nation.  Morality is viewed as ultimately coming from God and/or the Bible.  If the majority of a region shares a given belief that certain acts are immoral sins, it seems entirely proper for them to elect representatives and pass laws that enforce moral behavior.

Others have values based more on the Enlightenment, and thus place more moral emphasis on rights and freedom.  The government should not be able to force individuals to do certain things.  Many such put an emphasis on Freedom of Religion, that the government cannot be used to force the religious practices of one sect or cult on all.

That's the basic tension.  There are of course many variations on the theme.  For much of US history various protestant religions have been in the majority.  Believers are used to religious doctrine and secular laws being quite compatible.  That is how it ought to be in their minds.  As the population becomes more diverse and the secular individuals push for rights and equality trumping religious doctrine, the more religious individuals are feeling a loss of control and a failure of morality.

It is possible to know God's will.  It is proper to do God's will.  Voting for the government to enforce God's will is natural and proper.  To do otherwise might be judged as sin.

You might extrapolate from there.

OK.  When I start trying to think like the other guy, I sometimes get caught up in their way of seeing things.  Does New Zealand not care about God and the morality he attempts to teach?

NZ is Christian majority but secular. We separate politics and religion. So to try to imagine my reaction to this religion/politics mesh would include a foreigner who is unimpressed. The two should not mix. I hear many kiwi's who are religious yet confused as to why America cannot separate the two. I  believe places like Iraq behave in the same manner when it comes to mixing religion and politics so see why i am not impressed at all.
" Voting for the government to enforce God's will is natural and proper.  To do otherwise might be judged as sin." <--- how disgusting.

I wonder if you are more religiously uniform than we are.  If most people don't have differing points of view on religion, it's unlikely to become a political issue.

Here we have lots of differences, so weird issues like ritual animal sacrifice become political issues (see for example Church of the lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah).

Warren, could it be that you are a secular conservative?  They exist, I know of a number of them.