I believe people of good virtue should enter politics. The fact we don’t have enough virtuous people in politics has become painfully obvious in these times. But I don’t think elected representatives should bring their strict religious beliefs to the party. They should be checked at the door to the capitol building and the door to the White House.
I agree with Shree Rajneesh when he said as long as religion is allowed to become the mainspring of politics we will continue to be a world in turmoil because politics means sectarianism. And religion should have absolutely nothing to do with sectarianism. Religion is an individual commitment to spirituality he says and should not become sectarian. Politics are totally sectarian, and there is no relationship to spirituality. “Politics survives on sectarianism, sectarianism survives on hatred, and hatred survives on blood – and the mischief goes on “, Rajneesh says.
During the era in which I grew up, politics, divisive as they are, were left outside the church sanctuary. Once inside all who entered were brothers and sisters in the spirit of the church, a sanctuary to practice individual spiritual commitment.
The word sanctuary means a place of asylum, of immunity, a refuge from the world of political sectarianism. Throughout history churches and temples gave refuge to fugitives who were immune from arrest by civil authorities while they were in the church or temple sanctuary.
Those who bring political sectarianism into the church are destroying the church as a sanctuary for those who seek spirituality and a refuge from the troubles of the secular world.
Gary
