progressoid's observation was right - E. Edwards WAS one of us.

[trotsky]

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-An-Atheist/1304047

Jonathan Alter: What struck me in that interview shortly after her recurrence was her brutal honesty, which I think the rest of the world came into contact with in later years.

Steve Inskeep: What do you mean?

Jonathan Alter: Especially struck by how honest she was on the issue of faith, which most presidential candidates and their spouses have – are required almost by the world we live in that – to talk with great sincerity about their religious faith and what Elizabeth said on that particular occasion was that she couldn’t see how she could believe in a god who would blow her 16-year-old son off the road and kill him in an auto accident in 1996 and that any god who could do that was a god that she was not going to be praying to to cure her cancer because if he wouldn’t save her son, he wasn’t going to save her. And that was just reflective of the degree of honesty that she achieved after she had this horrible life experience.

[charlie]

1. Sort of a deist

You've kept God out of the public discussion of your situation. Why?

I had to think about a God who would not save my son. Wade was—and I have lots of evidence; it's not just his mother saying it—a gentle and good boy. He reached out to people who were misfits and outcasts all the time. He could not stand for people to say nasty things about other people; he just didn't want it. For a 16-year-old boy, he was really extraordinary in this regard. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. You'd think that if God was going to protect somebody, he'd protect that boy. But not only did he not protect him, the wind blew him from the road. The hand of God blew him from the road. So I had to think, "What kind of God do I have that doesn't intervene—in fact, may even participate—in the death of this good boy?" I talk about it in the book, that I had to accept that my God was a God who promised enlightenment and salvation. And that's all. Didn't promise us protection. I've had to come to grips with a God that fits my own experience, which is, my God could not be offering protection and not have protected my boy.

You didn't lose your faith, you changed your faith? Or did you lose it for a time?

I'm not praying for God to save me from cancer. I'm not. God will enlighten me when the time comes. And if I've done the right thing, I will be enlightened. And if I believe, I'll be saved. And that's all he promises me.

http://www.newsweek.com/2007/04/08/i-m-not-praying-for-god-to-save-me.html

She may as well have been an atheist, since of course, it's a distinction without a difference to pious shitheads:

Clearly Elizabeth Edwards wants to put her faith in something, be it hope or strength or anything. But not God. I wonder if it's just bitterness, that's she's been forsaken by more than just her estranged husband --- that's she's been forsaken by Him. And imagine if she'd have become First Lady. Americans generally expect outward expressions of faith in our presidents, Christian faith especially, and thus in our First Ladies as well. The Democratic base obviously doesn't care, as we can see in the "wow factor" expressed by the author at the American Prospect. Being anti-religion is cool, so Edwards' non-theological theology gets props from the neo-communists. Still, at her death bed and giving what most folks are calling a final goodbye, Elizabeth Edwards couldn't find it somewhere down deep to ask for His blessings as she prepares for the hereafter? I guess that nihilism I've been discussing reaches up higher into the hard-left precincts than I thought.

http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/elizabeth-edwards-parting-statement.html

Even Christianity Today linked to that lowlife's post, with a neutral "here's another reaction" description:

Donald Douglas at American Power looks at her statement where she says she was sustained by "my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope" and suggests that she puts her faith in something other than God.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2010/12/elizabeth_edwar.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Any blog called 'American Power' (unironically) will have fascist tendencies

and that will include propaganda about conforming to their preferred state religion. To such a fascist, anyone not with them is against them, and so a moderate like Elizabeth Edwards gets grouped with the 'neo-communists', 'hard-left', and 'nihilists'.

[Kolesar]

3. What horrible things to say about a dying woman, too

I agree with your points, btw.