Religion and Politics

I have a hard time reconciling the obvious conflicts between religion and politics. I think the reason is that religion and politics both rely heavily on propaganda/marketing. And once the obtain a member they do a certain amount of brainwashing to keep them. For instance, the church says you will face eternal damnation if you leave (at least the Catholic Church). In politics, I think, brainwashing by helping you choose your news source, and through that source you are daily reminded of what you are supposed to “believe.” Fox News and CNN are good examples of polar opposites. Fox News fuels the conservatives by making the issues call for a “conservative” solution. CNN does the same thing.  I am very liberal, but I can watch Fox News and get somewhat informed by it. Although I disagree with their political jargon, they do not deviate all that much from the actual facts–they simply change the issue and leave the facts the somewhat the same. But all news stations do this, some do it on accident.

So in order to cleanse myself of the obvious issues with news and religion propaganda, I’ve chosen to check out a variety of news conglomerations, like Google news and yahoo news (which pick from newspapers/articles from all over the world). As for religion, I get the spiritual stuff when I go to church (which is less and less often each year). For example, I use church to give me a certain mantra regarding what my community believes to be good or evil. But I don’t let it tell me what to do or not to do, I simply use it as a tool to make sure my views on morality are consistent with my community. I don’t know if this is the best way to do it, but it is working for me. Please let me know what you think!

Also, please don’t point out spelling and grammatical errors…it hurts my feelings 😉