March 8, 2008 - Saturday got started with a trip up to Safety Harbor for a New Member Welcome to Espiritu Santo Catholic Church. It was nice that they put together an hour long presentation on the church, and took the time to make sure everyone got a big packet of information, but I wasn't really impressed with the results. It seemed like their underlying intention was to make sure we knew every possible way to contribute money, and knew that they had lots of expenses to be paid. I would have rather had a representative from every mass there to introduce themselves, and let us spend time doing interactive things to get to know the other new members and the representatives from the mass that we attend. Then I would have felt more welcome. Instead, I felt like they look at all the dollars I'm going to bring them. And I know that is not their ultimate intention, but it came across that way. Ellie and I went to the gym in the evening, and the parking lot was packed. Apparently it was the annual Largo "Cracker Dinner" at the Southwest Rec Center. Ellie and I were the only ones in the gym. It was nice being able to talk to her while we were exercising, rather than being surrounded by a bunch of sweaty people we don't know. I quickly showered, dressed, and drove to Ybor City for a gig at the Czar. This place sucks. I mean, it's really a nice building, but the people running the show just don't treat the bands playing there very well. Instead of the usual red carpet that is rolled out for the bands playing at the club, including backstage access, free passes for friends on a guest list, free drinks, etc, they give us a list of rules to follow and charge full price for drinks. And normally I would not be that upset about all of their restrictive mannerisms, but it was especially challenging tonight considering that our band was playing for free. I mean, don't hassle us about bringing in a guest and give us a few drinks from the bar, why don't you? Nah, they don't work that way. Since I wrote about my church welcoming meeting today, I'll continue on that theme for my review of the Presidential Issues. Todays topic is the role of religion in politics. First off, I can't believe, and yet at the same time can believe, that the media makes a big deal out of the religion of the candidates. It's only relevant on people who either practice a religion that is not part of the homogenization of American politics (i.e. Protestant), or if someone has particularly strong beliefs that might possibly influence their actions. But I also think there is a lot of government procedure that rests heavily on religion that gets overlooked by mainstream media and general knowledge which deserves some attention. Such as the prayer before every session of congress. Such as the swearing on a bible. Yeah, politics needs to stay unbiased by individual religious practices to allow for inclusive rather than exclusive policies, but we need to recognize that this government we have has so many references to religion that, just as English is not an official language of the US but is the accepted standard language, Christianity is not the official religion but is the accepted standard religion by which we base our system of laws. What is the worst thing that could come of that? I can't see any downfalls. So many belief systems require that the person show ultimate loyalty to their religion over their government, and the government needs to allow for that. Rather than keeping "church and state" separate, let's keep them together, and do things in light of Christianity being a rather moral and upright way to do things.