The idea that the Founding Fathers were god-like and that their words are carved in stone is out there, and I’ve ranted against it many times (here and here and here, for example).  People who have this idea are political fundamentalists who, like their religious counterparts, know exactly what the (insert one:  Constitution/Bible) means and amazingly it always lines up exactly with their own views.  

But to say that “God wrote the Constitution” — well, that’s just delusional.

Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay believes it, though.  Apparently God, through his angels on earth, wrote the Constitution, including all those parts justifying slavery, not to mention those parts that prohibit the establishing of any religion in this country.  Even more amazingly, God chose a bunch of deists to this.  Prominent among them was Thomas Jefferson, who had edited the Bible to remove all the fantastic miracles he didn’t believe in.

I could ridicule this forever, but the point is this:  People who are convinced that God guides American politics and that they personally know exactly what God wants for America are a huge problem.  It’s why it is impossible to compromise with these radicals.  God is against abortion, so therefore anyone who has a different position isn’t just on the other side of the political aisle — they are agents of the Devil.  Any sort of compromise will surely place the compromiser in Hell.   This gets expanded to the point that any view that the “Devil politician” stands for has to be fought, because if they like it, it must be evil.  Higher taxes?  Has to be Satan’s plan.  No compromise!

Maybe the root of many of our political problems isn’t in politics as much as it is in religion.