News Flash: Atheists Hate Romney

Following on my post last night on “Why We Need More Religion in Politics, Not Less,” I received word this morning that atheists hate Romney.  I’m just shocked and flabbergasted by this news.

Of course, we were all waiting with bated breath this morning for the Secular Coalition for America to release its candidate scorecard for the 2012 Presidential contest — and the huge gobsmacking facepalm-inducing stunner here is that Mitt Romney has received a failing grade!  Whether you regard this as a stain upon his reputation or a badge of honor will large depend on whether you agree with the Secular Coalition.  They awarded an “A” if the candidate consistently agrees with the Secular Coalition viewpoint, and an “F” if he or she does not.

For “stance on faith-based initiatives,” for instance, the question is whether the candidate believes that the government can make religious organizations eligible on an equal footing with non-religious organizations for government funds to deliver essential, non-religious goods and services.  Romney was given an F, naturally, and Obama was given a C, since he sorta-kinda believes that religious organizations can receive government grants to help them deliver social services, even though his faith-based office is at least half-political.  On “discrimination by religious organizations receiving taxpayer funding,” the question is whether those organizations can make hiring decisions on the basis of their religious beliefs.  It’s “discrimination,” according to the Secular Coalition, for a Catholic charity that receives taxpayer funds to give food to the homeless to insist that a Catholic run the charity.

Obama and Romney show the widest divergence on “recognition of the US as a secular nation” (apparently Romney prefers a theocracy), “separation of church and state” (apparently Romney believes that we should have a state church) and “use of religious beliefs to determine public health care policy.”  It’s unconscionable, really, that basic beliefs about right and wrong should influence health-care legislation.

For your entertainment value, the scorecard is below.