The History of Presidential Faith

My Examiner article today talks about the importance of a president’s faith and religious preference. It was 50 years ago this past Sunday that JFK spoke about his Catholic faith and his belief in the principle of separating church and state issues.

In doing research for the article, I pulled video clips from JFK (Catholic), Mitt Romney (Mormon) and several by Barrack Obama (Christian who some believe is Muslim) about faith. For the article I was only able to include JFK’s speech but felt these two speeches deserved recognition as well.

One is the speech that Barrack Obama gave this past Easter at the White House prayer service (which some email forwards claim no longer happens). In it, he professes that Jesus is his personal savior and even quotes from one of the gospel’s directly.

The second is the speech 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave in defense of his Mormon faith during the primaries of the presidential election. It was one of the best speeches about his faith, religion in America and about the true principles of the separation of church and state. Romney will likely be a key player in the 2012 presidential election so this subject is bound to come up again. His speech here shows why he will likely be a front-runner again.

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Quote “Each one prays to God according to his own light.”

This quote is by a member of my “Spiritual Dream Team”, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi was a Hindu but willingly respected both the faiths of Muslims and Christians even though those in his own country couldn’t find agreement (India ended up being split into two separate countries, India and Pakistan,  because of the great division between Hindus and Muslims).

Our country, itself,  remains greatly divided and fearful of those faiths that differ from our own. I constantly question our lack of ability to respect the rights of others as they embrace their own journey to God. I think this quote by Gandhi says it best. It remind us that no two of us are on the same journey toward our God. Certainly, there are people who believe similarly to what we do but none have come to our beliefs the same way. To not allow an individual to believe his own beliefs is to deny him God.  Consider that next time the rush of fear strikes you when reading about people whose faith or denomination is different then your own.

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Most Read Examiner Article Yesterday!

Thanks to all of you for reading my article(s) yesterday. I had the most read column yesterday in the Inland Empire on Examiner.com even with the last minute changes. Thanks for reading and your continued support!

Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.examiner.com/religion-politics-in-riverside/pastor-cancels-quran-burning-proves-every-religion-has-extremists

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Death of the Bookstore…That’s Progress?

With both of the nation’s national booksellers filing for bankruptcy (Borders in 2009 and Barnes & Noble this year), what does the future of actual books hold? If you go into one of these bookstores today, you willcertainly notice they don’t carry the inventory they did 10 years ago. With E-Books, the Kindle and I-Pad, bookstores are sure to suffer the same death as music stores already have.

There is nothing like spending hours, at a time, in a bookstore, especially when you find a gem of a book that you would not have found without being there and seeing it.  It was the same with discovering music. I still remember flipping through records at Licorice Pizza and The Wherehouse stores for that new undiscovered band.  Even the mega chains like Tower Records and Virgin Megastores couldn’t keep up.  And, frankly, buying music on itunes  just isn’t the same.  You either need to know what you are looking for or you have what Apple gladly displays in the genre of your choice by “popularity.”  It’s just not easy to find something unique and new online in the same way as going into a store.

For me, this is sad on a personal level.  My wife and I used to spend countless hours together in the music store looking for new stuff. It was fun and a social occasion. We have also spent countless hours in Borders together: scanning shelves, sitting and reading, and buying countless books we didn’t really need. Some of them real gems!  It’s a huge social event for us. We even browsed a bookstore on our first date (waiting for a movie) and enjoyed trying to make the other laugh.

I know it’s not just us either. Browsing in a bookstore is an American social pastime (think ‘Seinfeld”, “When Harry Met Sally,” and “Annie Hall.”).  The more and more we do online, the less social avenues we have together.  We used to go out to buy our music, movies and books. Not anymore. Of course, when we wanted to talk to our friends, we also called them. Now we just read their Facebook status.

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