Pants on Fire # 24: Vote Your Religion

The Lie: You can trust a candidate to be honest and to reflect your values if that candidate shares your religious beliefs.

The Truth: Running for public office seems to take the religious and moral edge off of many candidates' behavior. Thus we have read that the campaign of Mitt Romney, who shares the same religious background of Madame L, has been behind vote manipulation schemes in this and the 2008 presidential elections. Madame L doesn't know if this is true, because, after all, she read it online, but she suspects it may be true because the person who wrote it it has no obvious or even apparent stake in the U.S. presidential election.

And so when Billy Graham decides to let his flock know that it's okay to vote for Mitt Romney, even though, as a Mormon, he's not a "real Christian" like Billy Graham and his followers, Madame L takes that with a grain of salt. Or a shaker of salt. Possibly a sea of salt.

Here's what the Rev. Graham says now, after opposing Mitt Romney's campaign for months:

    "The legacy we leave behind for our children, grandchildren and this great nation is crucial. As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this election could be my last. I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the sanctity of life and support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman. Vote for biblical values this November 6, and pray with me that America will remain one nation under God."

Billy Graham's son Franklin has also given non-Mormons a rationale for voting for Mitt Romney:

     "We must not cast votes for officials—whether candidates of the Democratic, Republican, or Tea Party, or of a religious persuasion—that are against these principles of God. We have, in the past, elected Christians who have defied some of these very principles. We need something like what Jerry Falwell did in the 1980s. We need a “moral majority”—made up of Christians, Jews, Mormons, Catholics and many others of faith—to come together to take a stand for our religious freedoms and rights."

No dog whistles here, folks, just outright calls to vote against anyone who supports equal rights for women and for gays; in other words, to vote against Barack Obama.

Dear Readers, as you well know, the Bible does not justify the ill treatment of women, gays, or anyone else. In fact, we read that the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah was not the result of their sexual practices but because of the greed and cruelty and pride of those cities' inhabitants. 

Madame L thinks that refusing to help poor people, war veterans, old folks, sick people, and victims of rape and incest puts politicians in the company of the citizens of those two ancient cities. Madame L thinks that raising taxes on the middle class while providing tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and off-shore accounts in which they can protect their wealth puts them in that company.

If you have not voted, please do so as soon as you can, before Election Day if you're able, for Barack Obama to continue helping our country out of the mess the Republican Party under George W. Bush got us into during eight years of greed and corruption.

Sincerely,

Madame L