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Christianity as it relates to elections in Europe and the US - by Pim de Kuijer
On November 7, Americans will elect all 435 seats of the House of representatives and a third of the seats in the senate. But are religious stakes more important during the US mid-term elections, half way through the president’s term, than in Europe?
Religious groups, the Catholic Church first among them, have not given up the continent altogether. They are present among lobby groups in Brussels and the Catholic Church has strong bilateral relations with EU member states, codified by treaties known as concordats. With the accession of new member states such as Poland, Malta and Slovakia, all three allied to the Vatican, the EU is faced with new conservative influences in the Council and the European Parliament. Polish League of Family MEPs would no doubt like what Katherine Harris has to say about legislating sin.
Even though Europe and the US both officially recognize the need for a separation between church and state, neither of them seems able to completely secularize politics. But the US is not as fanatic as Europeans would like to believe, nor is Europe the atheist Sodom and Gomorra some Americans would have it be. Both continents however face devout believers who are hell bent on getting religion back into politics.
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