Recently, Bernie Sanders was asked whether he is religious. He said, “Yes, I am religious. When a child is hungry, it really bothers me. When a child can’t get the medication he needs because his parents don’t have insurance, it bothers me. When people are oppressed and discriminated against, it bothers me.”
Years ago, when I decided to become a physician, I was asked by a medical school interviewer why I wanted to become a doctor. I answered, “I want to help people.” The interviewer, a research chemist, then spent the next hour telling me how research chemists also help people. One month later, one of the most important, happiest experiences in my life (ranking up there with marriage and the births of my children) occurred. I was accepted to medical school.
Helping others is really what religion and being a good person is all about. It’s not about pandering to the religious right who HATE everyone who doesn’t agree with them and donates huge amounts of money to the candidates who can hate along with them.
Wouldn’t it be a relief to truly separate church and state, as our constitution espouses, and focus on making our country a place where we once again can spend our energy taking care of each other?
Filed under: Psychiatry, Self Examination, Uncategorized, World events, a psychological view Tagged: Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders and religion, Caring about people, How the right twists religion in a negative way, Inside the mind of a psychiatrist
