I disagreed with Thought For The Day on Radio 4 this morning. The guy was talking about how good the separation of religion and politics was in America, that religion should stick with moral issues. It strikes me it’s that kind of imbecility which leads to a nation of upright people and in particular a large number of Christians voting for someone who lines the pockets of the rich and murders 500,000 Iraqis. If politics isn’t about moral issues, what is? Whoever the speaker was they said that faith and politics getting together was always a bad thing. Well, this is what I say. Martin Luther King. End of argument.

More seriously, I guess the point is that involving religion in politics gives it a lot more potential to affect people’s lives, so the real conclusion is that getting the right kind of religion involved in politics is a good thing and getting the wrong kind involved is a disaster. But of course one can’t admit that without admitting that there are right and wrong kinds of religion.