End GOP refrain of 'God made me do it'

As a non-theist, I take seriously the religious beliefs of aspirants for high office. In twelve previous elections I followed from 1952 through 1996, religion, for the most part, was omitted from the debate. When it did arise, as in the 1960 election, John Kennedy emphatically proclaimed his Catholic religion would play no role in his decision making when protestant critics expressed fear the Pope would interfere. Score one for our sacred concept of separation of church and state.

Fast forward forty years to 2000, when the GOP put forward George W. Bush, who adopted an evangelical religious framework which he made a centerpiece of his governing style. He went so far as to offer that God called him to the presidency. If that is true then the ensuing eight years means God has some serious explaining to do.

For the third straight election, the GOP has given us an evangelical oriented candidate. This time it is Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, running for Vice President. Palin has taken Bush's evangelical bona fides to another level. She remains connected to the Assemblies of God church, America's largest Pentecostal denomination. Major beliefs of her religiosity include end times theology which foresees Armageddon in the Middle East focused on Israel. This fatalistic worldview is almost welcomed by evangelicals as speeding the path to heaven for true believers.

Such a person is unfit to serve in high office where a connection to reality is essential to our survival. That detachment from reality is demonstrated by her declaring the Iraq war a "task that is from God". The only connection between God the Iraq war, as any rational observer can attest, is that it was made up and launched by her fellow evangelical George Bush.

Doesn't Gov. Palin know that "God don't do war crimes?"

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn