Last week I touched on the issue of race and politics. Even just this past week the whole debt ceiling debate raised the race card. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee stated that she believes Congress members are purposely interfering in Obama’s desire to raise the debt ceiling because he is black.

It gets almost ridiculous at times and I think this is yet another perfect example. We are debating DEBT, not color. Yet throw that card in there and you attempt to sway from the real issues at hand.

But this week I want to look at how politics and religion mix…or do they? Recently Veterans were making claims that they had been banned from mentioning God or Jesus during military funerals. They further claim that prayers had to be first submitted to the government for approval.

So far 3 organizations have filed a formal complaint against the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Houston National Cemetery. In God we trust? Apparently not.

Never has the religion issue been such a battle as it has this past decade. I truly believe it became a bigger issue when 9/11 happened. Suddenly we found ourselves wondering if our enemy wasn’t terrorists but the Islam religion.

Yet many religions have included followers that are peace-loving and those who are not. Even Christianity has seen its share of violence. So no “religion” is really safe from crazy followers who distort their teachings.

According to the “Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life” (a project of the Pew Research Center), the year 2010 saw the highest amount of press coverage when it comes to Islam. But I really don’t intend to spend a lot of time on this particular religion.

I would rather reiterate what this country was founded on. It was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs. The mention of God was not only accepted, it was common. Yet today we are fighting a religious war within our own country. Suddenly Christmas can’t be called that anymore. Now we must refer to it as the holidays. Schools can’t hold “Christmas Programs,” instead; they are called “holiday programs” or “winter solstice.”

Prayer was taken out of schools and you can’t teach creation. Recently NBC aired the reciting of the “Pledge of Allegiance” without using “under God.” There has been talk of taking “In God we trust” out of our currency. Well let me tell you, at this point in time, we better have someone we can trust that is a higher being because our country is facing some serious economical problems!

It all goes back to the two words that I have grown to despise, “politically correct” or PC. It is wrong to hold values that are based on Christianity and any politician who proudly proclaims their conservative or “religious” beliefs will be verbally attacked.

I think the whole problem could be solved so easily. We go back to our roots. We allow religious freedom. That means we teach creation AND evolution in the classrooms…let the students decide what they believe. We allow children who wish to pray in school the ability to do so. And if a Muslim child is attending school, we allow them to practice their prayer rituals.

In other words, we let everyone live freely in the religion of their choosing. We don’t try to destroy what has always worked. If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ and you don’t want to say “Merry Christmas” come December 25th, then say “Happy holidays.” More power to you. But don’t try to tell me that I CAN’T say “Merry Christmas”!

Trying to omit God, Jesus or any other religious figure is not going to solve our problems. All it does is create bigger ones. I will not fall into the politically correct line. I will proudly declare what I believe and if you don’t believe the same, I don’t hate you so why should you hate me?