In October, Cain had to undo damage from the following: a suggestion to put up an electrified fence on the Mexican border, statements endorsing a woman’s right to choose, an apparent unfamiliarity with the terms “right of return” and “neoconservative,” a tentative thumbs-up to negotiating with Al Qaeda for prisoners and news stories of a completely mismanaged campaign.

Now allegations of sexual harassment have drowned out pretty much anything else related to Herman Cain. And if that’s in any way a blessing, it’s only because it diverted attention from what may have been some serious violations of campaign-finance laws.

Herman Cain gets away with stuff like this — stuff like being inconsiderate or egomaniacal, or just stuff like saying absolutely the wrong thing. An ordinary candidate wouldn’t recover from saying that he wouldn’t appoint Muslims to his cabinet…

Most of [Cain's] former staff members…speak of a man so egotistical that careful self-policing would never really enter into the realm of consideration.

They also speak — bitterly — of a candidate with zero interest in policy… They speak of unrelenting self-absorption, even by the standards of a politician.

Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan: $210k Tax Cut for Richest 1%, $2k Tax Hike for Bottom Three-Fifths of Taxpayers — Citizens for Tax Justice

Cain’s proposed tax plan would replace all existing federal taxes with three new taxes: a flat nine percent individual income tax, a flat nine percent “business tax,” and a nine percent national sales tax.

Moreover, under the 9-9-9 plan, the United States government would collect about $340 billion less in revenue in 2011 alone.

Herman Cain: Nein, Nein, Nein! — Justin Raimondo

[Cain wrote] that the “war on terrorism” is a conflict that “will be fought forever.”

Cain promotes the views of Pastor Rod Parsley, an evangelical nut-job who not only teaches Islam is an “anti-Christ religion” based on “deception,” and that the prophet Mohammed was a “demon spirit,” but also claims “America was founded in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.”

[Cain believes] that “World War III” has already started…: “In WW III, our enemy is the irreconcilable terrorist wing of a religion — Islam — and a handful of nations that harbor terrorists and fund their activities. Those nations include Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea.”

I’m sure Hugo Chavez will be very surprised to learn he’s been lording it over a Muslim country rather than a staunchly Catholic one — and I can only imagine the look on Kim Jong Il’s face when he he hears the muezzin’s call to prayer ring out over the streets of Pyongyang.

The Flat-Tax Fraud — Robert Reich

[The] non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that Cain’s plan (the only one out there so far) would lower the after-tax incomes of poor households (incomes below $30,000) by 16 to 20 percent, while increasing the incomes of wealthier households (incomes above $200,000) by 5 to 22 percent, on average.

Under Cain’s plan, fully 95 percent of households with more than $1 million in income would get an average tax cut of $487,300. And capital gains (a major source of income for the very rich) would be tax free.

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– Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago)

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I addressed this issue back when the Christmas-vs.-holiday debate was raging. I referred to Steven Waldman, author of Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religion, who pointed out that the cross-defenders are destroying the meaning of the very symbol they’re trying to save:  

In order for religious symbols to pass Constitutional muster, they often must have some “secular” purpose, so advocates of religious displays spend much time trying strip the item of its religious meaning.

So, in order to preserve its place in the cemetary, [Supreme Court Justice Antonin] Scalia secularized the cross. It became not an emblem of Christ’s love or sacrifice but instead a “common symbol of the resting place of the dead.”

In other words, the more you want Christian symbols in the public square, the more you have to prove they’re lacking religious meaning. A question for devout Christians: Do you really want the cross and the creche to become akin to the Christmas tree — or the Easter Bunny?

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Religion is good for your health. Honest-to-goodness church folk tend to live healthier lifestyles. They are less likely to drink to excess, smoke, use illicit drugs, and (although news headlines indicate otherwise) engage in risky sexual behaviors. Being part of a community also has benefits—the built-in community can serve as a buffer against psychiatric symptoms or mental illness. A prayer circle or service is a release for stresses and pressures, and is intimate enough for individuals to feel cared for an appreciated. In the disorientation that is modern life, it is reassuring to have your health. In the light of serious ailments, then, it is not illogical to turn to the one thing that, by experience, makes you better.  

The incident of illness is the difference between healing and health. Health and healthiness prevent illness, while healing is the regeneration from a weakened state. Healing is therefore symbolic of far more than physical well-being, particularly when a faith-system is focused on rebirth. Faith Healing, therefore, allows an individual to be healed in both mind and spirit.

Faith Healing made sense at the time.  Doctors can poison people, and were guiltier of doing so in the early 19th century. During this period, doctors attempted to counter the symptoms, not the illness. If one was flushed, they would blood-let, draining the patient of color—a practice we clearly do not support today. Generally, medicine was deeply divided and largely ineffective. Due to the irregularity of treatment, and even inaccessibility of doctors, domestic medicine was very common. It was not a stretch, then, to turn to community leaders, the religious leaders, for guidance when sick. Those leaders turned to God.

Faith Healing kills a flock of birds with one stone. Often times, evangelical preachers (i.e. Aimee Semple McPherson, Oral Roberts, and the current Benny Hinn) made their careers by being healing preachers. They did not claim to heal individuals, but were the instruments through which the Lord cures. People witnessed miracles and strengthened their belief in the Lord. Churches gained popularity and therefore revenue. The sick were cured. By being cured, they also proved to their peers that were truly pious, or blessed by God.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But now Faith Healing is associated with fraud. Both the curers and the cured are viewed with suspicion (much like the fights on Jerry Springer). With the advent of Televangelism, preachers started healing over the phone for a small fee or requested donation. Faith not required. Many of the benefits (and the needs for) Faith Healing, therefore, became less salient. Televangelists were reaching a larger audience than any traveling preacher ever could—and therefore needed something to keep them watching (and donating). Health-concerns became less prevalent as healthcare and sanitary standards were improved. So what was the next benefit of religion?

Enter the Prosperity Gospel. People are living longer, and it seems that the new concern is to live better.  At the cusp of this transition were the prominent Oral Roberts and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. The current preacher of note is Joel Osteen. In the time of economic uncertainty, prosperity is of utmost importance. Again—it makes sense to turn to your religious group. Religious structures provide social networking, perhaps even more successfully than an alumni association. One would hope that in a time of need, a prayer group would provide for the needy—even if it is just a casserole. The optimism of the Prosperity Gospel is like affirmations: a boost in confidence and mood can make a real difference in a job search. And for some individuals, economic-miracles have indeed occurred, and have been attributed to their faith in God. The message is clear, and is not much different than the requirements of Faith Healing: dedicate yourself to the Lord, and he shall take care of you.

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1. It contains several untruths and half-truths. Click here for the details.
2. A philosopher would call this the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: “After it, therefore because of it.” Just because one thing followed another doesn’t mean it was caused by it. Sunday morning, you wake up, get dressed, make coffee, read the paper, go to church, watch the football games, eat dinner, and go to sleep. Monday morning, you wake up with a terrible cold. Did you get sick because you had coffee the day before? Or maybe because you watched football all afternoon? Or why not blame it on church? Chronology doesn’t prove causation, but this mistake does provide fodder for many great comedy sketches.
3. A statistician would call it “selection bias.” Anyone could easily conjure an equally convincing list of devout Christians who died terrible deaths after declaring their belief in Jesus.

The theology is more interesting. It quotes the Epistle to the Galatians, which was written at a time when Jews and Christians were locked in a bitter struggle over the “true” Judaism. Paul used this particular letter to address the application of Torah Law to Christianity. Chapter 6 is especially thought-provoking:

Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Geez, if a politician said that today, we’d call him a socialist and run him out of office. But then only a couple lines later, he seems to contradict himself:

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.

And if a politician said both those quotes, we’d call him a hypocrite. Was Saint Paul the first post-partisan? Something to think about the next time we listen to a speech by President Obama…

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