Witchcraft and Politics?

[watershield]

While surfing, I came across an interesting question;

"To what degree does mysticism (including occultism, religious organizations, and secret societies) influence politics? Can it be demonstrated that there is no real separation of church and state, despite most Americans' belief?" Can it be revealed that the "world's political leaders are motivated by (at times bizarre and outrageous) religious or spiritual convictions, thus threatening" the "very nature of the our way of life?"

Your thoughts...??

[brandra]

History tells us that religion has had a powerful influence on governments world wide.
President Bush regularly refers to the bible and god in his speeches. Islamic states are often completely absorbed by the religious beliefs and never make decisions without consulting the Koran and their religious advisor's.
Tony Blair is a very religious man and that influences his policy making.

There are also ideas that societies like the Freemasons influence government but proof of this is hard to find.

[vermindaspirit]

I watched a program last night about a baby girl that was born with two heads in Egypt and before they could operate the surgeons had to consult the religious leaders to see if it was morally right to go ahead....

Religious leaders have always played a massive part with Government issues and before there was any government that we know, religious leaders were the leaders......Look at our history, Kings and Queens all had their religious leader that they consulted in all matters of the state and before that the seer of the clan/tribe was the one the leader went to first.....

As for Witchcraft being an influence over politics, not in our life time.........

[elle]

Well, modern politics in the western world relies on the masses, and since the masses either;

1. believe in religion
2. give lip service to believing in religion.
3. don't care either the way.

the safe bet is to at least give it at least a cursory inclusion in their poll jockeying. For the most part I don't think them honestly guided by anything even remotely resembling spirituality, or if they once did it's all been burned out by the fire of power.

Call me a cynic.

[seleena]

I tend to agree with you Elle.

[watershield]

Yet, when we look at history we see that every Royal Court had it's "staff" fortune teller.
Catherine the Great had Rasputin.
Correct me if I've got the wrong guy, but I think it was Henry VIII that caused the creation of the Church of England. Is not the Queen head of the Church of England?
Ronald Reagan's wife Nancy had his fortune read every morning.
George Bush is very much influenced by his Baptist back ground and we really don't know how closely he listens to Rev. Pat Roberts and the rest of the Moral Majority.

I think that any time you have a leader who has strong religious beliefs, there exists the chance of having his or her decisions being influenced by those beliefs and or the current activities within the "religious group"

[elle]

That's a given Watershield, but it begs the question "is it wrong?"

[watershield]

I suppose if the majority of the people that this type of government was of the same mind, there may not be any harm.
It all depends upon the mandate of that government and weather or not they feel it their divine duty to attempt to enforce their belief upon their neighbors.

In 1939 Germany was of a particular mind set and we know the effect it had upon the whole world.

Today, it appears the government of United States has a view of Islam which could be viewed as religiously intolerant. Time will tell.