The eighth stupid way to think about God is very apropos given the current activities in these United States. It is GOD THE POLITICAL CANDIDATE. God the Political Candidate’s platform is simple. This is the God of the majority, or the imagined moral majority. He is out to convert – or eradicate – sinners who lead our country astray. His tactics are anything but morally pure, let alone   consonant with our national values. He is a demagogue of the worst kind. He does not persuade, he condemns. He doesn’t respect your freedom to disagree or your right to believe something different. He displays a total disregard for freedom of conscience, a total disrespect for individual choice and a complete abhorrence for religious     beliefs that differ from his.

What’s so bad about God as a Political Candidate? He seems the model God for the model citizen,         embodying the model faith!

The problem is the very nature of faith. What makes it faith. Faith, to be faith, must be more than the blind adherence to any one belief. It must be more than the dogmatic acceptance of a party line. To be truly faithful, an individual must choose to believe. Faith can come only after deep introspection and self-reflection. It is a delicate, precious gift that must be cherished and respected because it comes from deep within the individual’s soul. Therefore, there can be no faith without freedom. Which is why this particular type of God is actually undermining faith rather than upholding it. He has violated freedom of conscience, the very basis of the faith experience.

This is abuse of power – plain and simple. And this god leads people like sheep to the slaughter. No one stops to question his authority. No one asks his qualifications. This god rallies people with a high-minded, know-it-all attitude that presumes complete personal knowledge of God’s will. In essence this god is a cult leader. He has substituted his version of earthly authority for God’s authority. He has made his word equivalent to God’s Holy Word.

Can any leader ever take the place of God? Should we ever trust any individual so much that we sacrifice freedom of choice and individual conscience in the act of worship?

What is the borderline between divine authority and mortal authority? How can we fuse them in principle, without confusing them in practice? These are the issues that God the Political Candidate really speaks to.

But we won’t face them honestly until we stop casting our ballots for this political sham of a deity.

This god is the god that results when politicians manipulate the idea of God, forcing their values on God instead of accepting God’s values.