See how easy it is?

Please don’t pretend that any value structure, no matter how derived, is inherently privileged over any other, or that any class of morality is and ought to be silenced or subjected to prior restraint. This is America, pard. Everybody gets a voice, everybody gets a vote. You even get to be intolerant of it.

It’s just not inherently ennobling.

You are free to impose any moral code upon yourself, and if you deem that it is within your right, to impose it upon any minor member of your family. You may even embrace the Southern Baptist Convention, and impose your moral code upon your wife, who by certain Biblical precepts is to obey your wishes.

What I said, I stand by:

I just cannot tolerate those who advance their intimate relationship with God or their superior knowledge of God’s will as a reason to seek public office, or as a reason to impose their morality upon me.

The words were carefully chosen Lex, the comments were revised more than once before submitted. The phrase intimate relationship with God was crafted to emphasize the tension between personal belief, and imposing that belief on others. The rest just fallows, I really do not want anybody, at any time, in any place, impose their interpretation of God’s will on me. And I will not impose my interpretation on you.

Hey mon, it is not the first time this topic has come up. Pierre Teilhard du Chardin provocative book The Divine Milieu, which posited the man was evolving to a greater understanding of God, was suppressed by the Catholic Church, and he was silenced. We have discussed this man previously. Are you trying to tell me, as the good Romans did, that your intimate relationship with your God is superior to that of Teilhard? Are you trying to say that that Sarah Palin’s view of God’s will is superior to that of Teilhard and should be incorporated as the law of the land?

You, your family, and friends are free to practice religion and to worship God in the most intimate relationship that you may chose. Please do not impose those views on me.

But you’d be quite happy, through the democratic process, to impose your morality upon them?

That said, I really have no desire to get into a cat fight about Ms. Palin’s qualifications for any public office. I viewed my comments as deserving a place in this blog, to wit, others within the broad canopy of conservatism or the Republican Party (they are really not the same) did not think her choice was wise, or that she would advanced what they perceived as their cause/agenda. Do not waste your time arguing with me, go to the links I provided, and argue with them… You will find their voices a lot more cogent than mine, and certainly less caustic.

My apologies AW1Tim. I have no problem with anybody’s relationship to their Creator, or how they wish to express it in public, or in private. I gaze in wonderment at those who visit Lourdes, and those whose belief compels them to embark on hazardous pilgrimages to the temples or mosques of their faiths. Their courage, and their steadfastness forces the mind to consider faith.

I just cannot tolerate those who advance their intimate relationship with God or their superior knowledge of God’s will as a reason to seek public office, or as a reason to impose their morality upon me. That said, I should point out to you that in my formative years I hit the Catholic tri-fecta – Catholic High School, Catholic College, and Catholic Medical School. I should be more accepting that men who put their pants on, one leg at a time, know more about God than I do…

Early in my Medical career I had to confront a very simple question: Do I approach patients from my religious perspective, or do I adjust my medicine to their religious perspective? Not a trivial question, by any means, which I will leave for others to ponder… But, I will help them along, what do you expect from your doctor?

To my mind John McCain has been a mythical figure, a flawed and wounded stalking horse for our dreams, failures, and miss adventures. Savaged by Carl Rove’s personal attacks during the 2000 primaries, he stood tall, and had no problem in identifying the fundamental Christian Right as agents of intolerance.

Times change, I join those who are pained by his choice for Vice President.

Some have been there.

Some haven’t.