by Fawn Parker

Created on: August 09, 2011

A person's spiritual beliefs should not affect their decision when voting for the same reasons that  Church and state are meant to be separated. Religion or spiritual belief is a personal and private thing that helps an individual shape their morality. Even an Atheist uses their lack of belief in a supreme being to judge their own actions. So it's very easy to assume that this great structure of faith that's been guiding your own moral compass should be used when voting on matters of politics, such as issues of whether or not gay marriage should be allowed or laws about fertility or reproduction. However something that the righteous seem to forget on their way to the poles is that your personal beliefs and the things you do that only affect your own personal wellbeing have nothing to do with anyone else, and the same goes for the people around you. Laws and people in offices of political power are meant to govern the people as a whole, and not everyone believes in the same religion.

Perhaps you personally don't believe in abortion, well there's nothing wrong with that, you don't have to get one. You don't have to donate to abortion clinics, you don't have to offer to care for someone that's had one, and freedom of speech allows you to tell whoever you want  that you don't agree with them (hopefully you do this respectfully). However that doesn't mean that every woman in the world shares the same opinions as you, and whoever feels that and abortion is her only option has the right to have appropriate medical attention during the procedure, and appropriate medical aftercare. Could she give the baby up for adoption, of course she could, but you don't know the extenuating circumstances of her health or her situation, what if the child is born out of incest, what then?

This is just one example of how someone's religious doctrine shouldn't affect someone else's life. The argument extends even further than laws that effect singular people. Perhaps your Jewish, does that mean you should ignore the issues and whether or not someone is an adequate political candidate and simply vote for someone who prays in the same building as you? Obviously the answer is no. People should want their leaders to be unbiased and effective. Whether or not they are in church on Sunday  has nothing to do with the strength of our communities and country. When people vote they should consider the good of whole, not be trying to create a country full of religious automatons who are forced by law to follow a specific religious doctrine.

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