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{"id":2317,"date":"2012-02-29T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/02\/the-right-way-for-people-of-faith-to-practice-politics.html"},"modified":"2012-02-29T12:18:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T12:18:00","slug":"the-right-way-for-people-of-faith-to-practice-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/02\/the-right-way-for-people-of-faith-to-practice-politics.html","title":{"rendered":"The right way for people of faith to practice politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By Sam Fulwood III
Grio.com<\/p>\n

Within a one-mile radius of my house, there are more places to pray than there are Starbucks coffee shops. I know this because I tried to count each of them.
After an hour\u2019s walk around my neighborhood, I lost count of the many churches (in a multitude of denominations), synagogues (no less than five in one two-block stretch), temples, and mosques. That doesn\u2019t even include the storefront places that advertise religious services of some sort. There were so many places to receive a blessing that I lost count after several dozen.
That\u2019s when I turned my attention to finding a cup of joe. It was easy \u2014 there are only three Starbucks locations within walking distance of my house. My failed experiment proved something that our political leaders would do well to understand. Our nation\u2019s founders knew what they were doing by not establishing a state religion. A nation as diverse as ours can never settle on a single set of faith principles to cover us all in glory. As a society, America embraces all faith traditions, while as individuals many of us pray in spirit-filled fellowships of the like-minded.
Our nation doesn\u2019t lack religious faith. What we lack is uniformity of religious expression. There are black Mormons<\/a>, Latino evangelicals, Asian Protestants, and Muslims of all hues and races. Religion thrives in the fertile diversity of American culture. This is a good thing.
Unfortunately, some political and religious leaders fail to understand or appreciate the value in the blooming of faith traditions within a secular government. For them, religion is a one-size-fits-all edict, or a blunt weapon used to bludgeon anyone who disagrees with their narrow and exclusive views.
Read the rest here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"