Paving the Road Towards Theocracy

“The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian Religion.” 1797, The Treaty of Tripoli, initiated by President Washington, signed by President John Adams, and approved by the Senate of the United States From the beginning, our Founding Fathers were adamant about the separation of church and state.  Not just the agnostic ones, not just the questionably atheist ones, but all of them.  Not because they were against religion, not because they wanted to suppress people’s religious rights, not because they wanted to wage war on Christmas.  But, because they were truly wise men who understood that there needed to be a clear and distinct line drawn between the two.  They understood that history has always shown that Theocracies to be the most oppressive forms of government. Currently, almost all of the existent theocracies are Islamic with the exception being The Vatican City being Christian/Catholic.  But, those are enough to paint a picture of the consequences of such governments in the modern world.  In history, you have the Mayans, the Egyptian Pharaohs, China, and the divine rule of Europe.  Every one of these governments is a horror show of elitism, bloodshed, slavery, torture and subjugation of its people. For even in a country where there is a shared religion, quite often there are still variations on those religions, areas of disagreement, application, fundamentalism.  And it is predominately in the realm of fundamentalism that things can get taken to the extreme.  The word itself defines taking those religious texts to their literal extremes.  And any delusions that a Christian theocracy would be any less oppressive shows that one is not listening to the political demands of the Religious Right or any true reading of the scriptures.  Since so many of them are so fond of quoting laws of Leviticus, it would be suggested that one’s research begin there.  I doubt Shariah law can hold a candle to the laws in this book.  Leviticus prohibits eating fat, eating blood, touching an unclean animal, bringing unauthorized fire before god (which begs the question, where does one get fire authorization from?), drinking alcohol in holy places (so much for Catholics), having sex with your mother, sister, granddaughter, etc. (well, there are some that make sense).  It is from this same set of laws/rules that they draw their anti-gay rhetoric from.  It also acknowledges life to begin when it has breathed life.  In the womb, the bible only treats it as a property loss and subject to such penalties if lost in an act of violence. The beliefs of our founding fathers have been the subject of debate for as long as I can remember.  It is known that at least 1/3 of the signers of our Constitution were Masons, a secret fraternity whose origins could be traced to the church, but also with magic and secret rituals.  Reading many of the writings of the founding fathers does cast much illumination on their beliefs.  Some of these men were strongly religious, and yet others were one step removed from atheism, if they were not in silent embrace of it.  Simply read the writings of Jefferson (a man who created his own bible by removing all the supernatural passages from the new Testament and clipping it down to what he believed were the essential teachings of Jesus.  In truth, many of the founding fathers spoke and wrote in words that showed their staunch position regarding the complete separation of church and state.     Although none of the founding fathers were out of the closet atheists, or even agnostic, the writings of many of them shows that many of them almost certainly were. “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson – Letter to the Danbury Baptists, January 1, 1802 Regardless of whether they were Christian, Atheist or anything between those, the fact remains that they held the universal belief in the absolute separation between church and state, the free exercise of religion, all religions and no religion, to belong to the individual and to have no place in the government of a free republic.  Even the most Christian president this country has had, Jimmy Carter, believes that there should be a clear and distinct separation between church and state. And even granting that there has always been debate as to the meaning of the text of the first amendment, that it does not explicitly call out a wall between Church and State, the Supreme Court has always found on what is obvious of the intent of the authors, that there should be a separation.  That you cannot have the free exercise of religion, regardless of religion, if that separation does not exist.  And that said exercise is an individual right, not a state or government right. And the problem with allowing that line to blur, to fall into question, opens the door to insert religious morality and laws into the government.  The Comstock laws of the Victorian period in this country were so restrictive that even medical texts that showed nudity or the reproductive organs were deemed to be lewd and pornographic.  Most people would find most of these to be ridiculous.  But, what many don’t understand is that these laws are still on the books.  The saving grace has been the Miller Test by the Supreme Court for determining if something can be considered to be “pornography”.  Because this is a subjective test based on who is seated on the court and the lawmakers in power, what is currently allowed as freedom of the press, art, freedom of expression can be quickly changed.  In fact, there have been politicians running for as high as the office of the president that have vowed to enforce the anti-pornography laws on the books.  Those laws are the Comstock laws. Move forward to the McCarthy era where hundreds of people were questioned and suspect for being “communist sympathizers”, mostly artists and people in the film industry.  Yet, like all true persecutions, anyone that was an annoyance to those behind this witch hunt could find themselves under scrutiny.  One of the results of this period was the addition of “In God We Trust” on our money and “Under God” added to the pledge of allegiance.  Prior to these proceedings in the early 1950’s, these words did not appear on our currency or in the pledge.  And we have now allowed them to be so firmly ingrained in those that most people believe they have always been there.  Even more so, they believe that a person is a traitor if they refrain from speaking the added line, threatening a kid in school for it and taken disciplinary action against them. “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” ~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814 Enter the current time and we have politicians not just espousing their religious beliefs as supposedly guiding them, but making statements that this country was founded on Christian principles and is a Christian nation.   They strive to insert god into the classroom, teach religious doctrine as science and deny any science that interferes with their goals.  And they take it to levels of absurdity that makes one wonder how any sane person can buy what they are selling.  There is the congressman who says that climate change can’t happen because humans can’t change what god created, a rape pregnancy is a “blessing from god”, homosexuals should be put to death, etc.  They have granted religious rights to for profit corporations, seek to legalize discrimination, just to name a few of  their latest trends. “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”  ~~ Thomas Paine – The Rights of Man, 1791-1792 Keeping the bible out of politics, out of our government is not a war on Christianity.  The truth is that it is as supportive of Christianity as it is for all religions.  In fact it is tantamount to having freedom.  Our constitution was not based on the bible, as has often been said.  Yet, we find ourselves being herded further and further into the pen of a theocracy.  Even in the face of the statistics that state that fewer and fewer people consider themselves religious.  Yet, it seems they are still afraid of having that non-believer finger pointed at them and step in line.  Our politicians now go out of their way to espouse their religious convictions, denying science, promising to uphold bigotry, intolerance and greater separation of the classes.  With each election, it seems we are stepping one step closer to that Theocracy. “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” James Madison ~ Writings, 1819 Keeping religion out of government does not in any way restrict or prohibit anyone’s religious freedom.  It, in fact, is the only way to protect those freedoms.  We may or may not agree with all that a secularist government protects, but it protects on the basis of personal freedom, common sense and the inclusion of all of its members.  Its what the Founding Fathers intended.  And it works brilliantly until we attempt to tamper with its mechanisms.  For the reality is, if there is not freedom for all, there truly is not freedom for any. I believe “their” words could not be any clearer. “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” George Washington ~~ Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789 SephiPiderWitch 01/05/2015