My sermons from June 8, June 15, August 10 and August 17 are now on-line. My August 10 sermon, "Rejecting a Culture of Violence", is my response to the attack on the UU congregation in Knoxville.

There’s an interesting article in today’s Washington Post by Kathleen Parker on the recent forum that Rick Warren held with John McCain and Barack Obama. The article is highly critical of the forum because, Parker argues, having a minister publicly interview presidential candidates is a violation of the separation between church and state. Parker writes, "…higher principles…are compromised every time we pretend we’re not applying a religious test when we’re really applying a religious test." I think that is certainly a true statement.

And I also think it is true that there is a religious test for higher political office in the United States. The people that have the highest negatives in public opinion polls are always atheists. In other words, you can’t be President if you don’t profess to believe in God. Personally, every time politicians start talking about their religious beliefs I can’t but help think of Machiavelli’s The Prince in which he argued that it was important for politicians to be thought of as Christians but that it was equally important that they followed the logic of power rather than the logic of ethics to remain in control.