Prayers For Democracy Or Theocracy ?

I'm not a religious person, but I can understand a voter praying for wisdom before they go to vote, or even praying that our leaders exhibit wisdom is making their decisions. Frankly, considering some of the bone-headed decisions made by our leaders in the last few years, I think they probably need all the help they can get.

But one thing I really don't understand is praying for God to make your candidate win an election. This is something that is common among right-wing fundamentalists. They seem to think that "prayer circles" and "prayer warriors" can convince God to intervene and "fix" the election for their candidate.

Do they really think their God cares enough about our elections to step in and throw the election to one of the candidates? Sadly, this practice has spread this year to the Democrats also. The Obama campaign has its daily "prayer circles". Personally I think both sides are just being silly.

Even worse, those who believe their prayers can affect which candidate wins an election, just don't believe in democracy. In a democracy, all the candidates present their points-of view and the voters make a choice -- not some God.

If God is going to fix the election because of the prayers of some of his followers, then what's the point of even voting. The voters aren't making the decision -- God is. That sounds like a theocracy. If God makes the decision instead of the voters, we could save a lot of money and trouble by dispensing with elections.

It would make more sense in a theocracy to just have everyone pray to their particular God, and let the strongest God win and install his man as leader. There are probably a lot of "fundies" who would be happy to do it that way.

The problem is that our founding fathers didn't want a theocracy. They intentionally founded a secular government, and based it on a secular constitution -- not the Bible or any other religious book. They provided for religious freedom, but intentionally prevented religious rule.

We have been provided with a secular democracy. It's a messy form of government, and sometimes your candidate won't win. That's because the voters make the choice and they are not all-knowing. However, it's still the best form of government yet invented.

There's a place for religion and prayer in our society (for those who want it), but not in our elections. Election decisions are made by voters, and that's just how it should be.