only people are respectful -- or not.

And this conversation doesn't strike me as respectful, of virtue or each other or of REASON.

Have you ever seen or suffered the shocking social miscarriages attributed to the Biblical exhortation against being "unequally yoked?" Biblical pandering is not respectful of civil rights, the dignity of the individual, of humanity, nor reason, prudence, justice, you name it. And it doesn't care.

Furthermore, I frankly doubt such social virtues can be widely advanced by anyone pandering for votes, anywhere. I really think campaigning for president is incompatible with all of that, no matter how sincerely "good" a candidate starts out as a real human being...unfortunately most pack their humanity away to survive on the campaign trail, or else they don't survive period. I can't think of any president or candidate I would rank among the best real people I know. I'd put at least half of all the professors I ever studied with, up against the best politicians I know. I probably would've found Obama much more genuine and genuinely valuable as the professor he was, than the candidate he is becoming so unnervingly (imo).

And since we're speaking of MLK -- peace, love and tolerance come from the heart, not the law and not just from pulling the lever for your church or party's choice. Changed hearts for others can't be voted in by electing Dems (in the south if we know anything, we KNOW that!) and though Martin Luther King, Jr. did grow up here in southern churches and schools to become "reverend doctor" himself, on top of coming from a whole family of southern ministers and schoolteachers -- with such impeccable credentials, he did NOT run for office as his way of leading, showing respect and tolerance, and helping to change the world. (Nor has Oprah.)

He also literally gave his life for his people without enlisting in the military. So many examples show us we never HAVE TO do anything the way conventional wisdom dictates . . .