V's Version

Is anyone else noticing the spiked deterioration of the separation of church and state? It's heart-sickening evidence of the further erosion of the US Constitution and Thomas Jefferson's ideals. It makes me deeply sad and, frankly, frightened.

It's not that I don't want my public leaders and lawmakers to have spiritual lives. It's just that I am not interested in becoming a Christian Nation in fact. I don't want (as Obama suggested) God's Kingdom here on earth unless I am part of the group who defines God and gets a shot at guessing what God might want the Kingdom to look like.

I guess I kind of took it for granted that Reagan and Bush Sr. and Jr. would court the religious right. The notion doesn't appeal to me but, like the proverbial frog in boiling water, I kind of got used to it.

Now the God-o-Meter (skip the ads) has Clinton and Obama running neck and neck with Huckabee and Romney and my red flags are flying. Warning - warning. Clinton spoke yesterday at the evangelical Christian Saddleback Church (picture above). Every major candidate - including Kucinich - is talking about their spiritual and/ or religious lives.

When a lesbian candidate anonymously says that she has no problem coming out as gay but would never want to come out of the closet as an atheist - something is wrong. Where is the first amendment? Where is freedom of religion (or lack thereof?)

Conservative candidates are making statements that we are a Christian nation and then liberal candidates are in a race to the bottom: who can mix church and state to the point of fusion? This pagan lesbian is scared - very scared. I cannot believe that a document that I hold so dear is disintegrating before my very eyes.

I do hold dear the US Constitution. It is a fine and noble document. It's not perfect. But it's well-thought out and I haven't seen anything that I would rather have as a basis for law and government.