Following up on my previous post regarding McCain never having read the US Constitution (!), Barack Obama took on pretty much the same subject of religion in politics, and here is what he had to say:

UPDATE: the original video has been removed and I was not able to find it somewhere else to repost it here. Therefore I replaced it with an earlier Obama speech (2006 I think) which pretty much mentions the same things.



Highlight:

[...] we are not just a Christian nation. We are a Jewish nation, we are a Buddhist nation, we are a Muslim nation, a Hindu nation, and we are a nation of atheists and non-believers.

Is this the first time atheists are actually considered normal citizens of the US?!?

The biggest danger [...] is self-righteousness when we start thinking, well, you know, I’ve got a direct line to God. That is incompatible with democracy.

“Direct line to God…” Hmmmm. Whom is he referring to? Perhaps someone claiming to talk to God every day in his big white oval office? Not sure…

Personally, I really liked the way Obama handled it, although it seems evident that he doesn’t want to alienate the Christians too much, thus mentioning twice (in such short time) “…those of us of religious faith…”. Fair enough, he is trying to satisfy both extremes, but in the context of politics, democracy, and the existing US constitution, he is absolutely right not to allow religion and personal beliefs in God(s) influence public discussion and policies.

What a sharp contrast with McCain…