Today I had an email exchange with someone I would like you to see. I won't use the name the writer used or show their email address. I'll use "writer" for their part of the dialogue and "me" for my part. I'll make some comments at the end.

Writer:
Mr. Bradley,

In the other exchanges I've had with people who base their politics on their religion, they have said to me that if I can't get my religion right, then I have nothing to say to them politically.

I show you this dialogue to illustate what I have come to know. A significant portion of the voting public takes the following approach. They have three basic questions for political candidates. Here are the questions.

    Are you a Christian?
    When does life begin?
    Define marriage.

If a candidate answers those questions correctly in the opinion of this segment of the voting public, then they assume the candidate answers all other questions correctly and the segment offers blind loyalty to that candidate. The Republican Party has exploited this flawed approach to voting to gain power over the last 8 years. Thinking this segment's numbers were sufficient to guarantee them continuous power in the Federal Government, Republicans vigorously pursued the flawed theory of government they pursued.

The evidence of how well that flawed theory worked is all around us now in the economic wreckage we are trying to sort through.

For those of you who recognize yourselves in the writer's email, let me remind you of this saying from the Bible. I'm an amateur on that publication, but I seem to remember it says something about rendering unto Cesar what is Cesar. You would do well to apply that teaching to how you do your politics.

Let me say this, too. What your religion is is your business. The Constitution gives you as much freedom to practice your religion as it does for other people to reject your (or any other religion). What I look for I respect more in people is open mindedness, intelligence, fairness and other attributes of character you might find in the description of qualities to be developed in a Boy or Girl Scout. If your assessment of whether someone's politcal ideas are worthy of consideration are mainly dependent on whether someone shares your religious beliefs, then I hate to tell you this, but someone needs to do so. You are FUBAR.