CNN international usually forms a large percentage of the background noise in my apartment here in Japan. Yes, yes, of course, we understand something of what’s happening in Pakistan and Zimbabwe, but when “The Situation Room” rolls on, or other shows offering a “closer look” at American politics and the race for the presidency, I am–as they say–”gob-smacked.” Or should I say, “God-smacked?” Why all this chest (and breast) beating about God and religion? Why must this race continue to degenerate into a Saturday morning cartoon about the good guys and the bad guys? Why are we a heartbeat away from voting into office somene who actually believes that the most obnoxious book of the Bible–the Book of Revelations–is the political road-map for the immediate future? We suspected as much about George W. Bush and Condi Rice, but now, with Sarah Palin (with her Third Way Christian proclivities) on the political map, I fear that we are truly returning to the Middle Ages, exemplified by more people being concerned about the creation of “black holes” via the CERN project, than the mental stability of a “true believer” with a real yen for power within real striking distance of the White House. Beware those people who know that they are “truly right”–you find them on the political Left and the Right–and you’ll know them by the glint in the eye and the mile-long smile. Take a look at the videos of Palin and her church on YouTube, the Huffington Post, etc.–and join me in praying for another kind of miracle–that all of those smug, self-satisfied American beef-eaters don’t get snookered into voting for more of that insanity into office. The world gushes like an over-full slop jar with the by-products of those who believe that being religious means hanging your brain on the coat rack before taking a seat among the saved. Let us try to step back to a time when the “best and brightest” could acually think instead of emote and could keep their personal beliefs separate from their public service.