Marking Period 4: Monday #1

My general topic for this marking period is religion.  I looked into Israeli-Palestinian conflict columns but had some trouble finding recent articles, so for now my focus will be the way religion fits into national society.

Henry G. Brinton of USA Today writes about the good versus evil mentality of American politics.

Brinton begins by using twentieth century examples of the US banding together against foreign enemies in times of war, but in times of peace we turn against each other.  He cites this "duality" as religious in nature and present for the purpose of pinning blame on others.  Its relevance is clear in the upcoming 2012 Election, where the concept of political extremes as a source of evil has come into play.  A poll by the Center for Political Participation revealed that 61% of Americans think this good-versus-evil is unhealthy for our democracy.  Brinton then cites New Testament professor Susan Garrett on two examples of Christians calling other Christians evil (I have to wonder what this means for non-Christians...), using this as a lead-in for his belief that there are no devils running for president in 2012.  Rick Perry called our moderate president a "socialist," crossing the line into straight demagoguery.  Gingrich called Romney dishonest for his work as a venture capitalist.  Although creating an enemy can get votes, making other Americans into enemies is a waste of energy.  Brinton believes we should focus this energy instead on foreign enemies or internal problems, such as "substance abuse, racism, sexual addiction, domestic violence or the disintegration of the American family."  (As a pastor of the Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia, the religious nature of his examples is to be expected.)

I'm only sixteen, but in my life I have on some level witnessed this concept of "duality" in action:  from a young age it was drilled in my head to Osama bin Laden is - was - a terrible person, and as I've grown older I've become more aware of Democrats and Republicans attacking each other like two sides of bitter civil war.  This topic of duality in the government of a fairly religious country might be able to be applied to the governments of other countries, and not just primarily Christian countries, either.  Mr. Brinton called it a very Christian style of thinking, but Islam has a very good-versus-evil mentality as well.