User blog:Fraterchaos/The Slipperiest of Slopes - (or: Shooting Yourself in the Foot)

(Note: this entry was originally posted on my deviantArt account on Novemeber 2, 2008. I decided to repost it here for varius reasons. I firmly believe that any infringment on the idea of Church/State Separartion is not a good thing, not for the State, nor for the Church(es) nor for the population as a whole.)

In 1776, American Continental Congress began a great experiment, which they called Constitutional Democracy. A new and heretofore unheardof form of governance based upon the idea and ideal that the people of the nation ought to rule themselves. For some time, this experiment seemed quite successful, until beauracracy and special interests and the monetary elite gained a foothold in the formerly populist run government.

Many today lean toward an opinion that the nation was founded on christian religious values, and yet, if one actually reads  the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights (these three documents being the foundation of constitutional democracy) one will find that not once do any of these make reference to the Christian God. There is a reference to "nature and nature's god", which if one really thinks of it, is much closer to a pagan religion than anything "christian". Indeed, the founding fathers of our great nation were far from devout christians, they were nearly all freethinkers and also Freemasons.

And yet, today, we see a nearly constant push, from the "religious right" to try to "return" this nation to "christian values", something it is impossible to "return" to, since we never started out from there.

Now, most will grant that there are some good moral principles embodied in the bibilcal text, and it would do us all well to remember such things as "love thy neighbor", "love thy enemy, do good to those who hate you"and "turn the other cheek" and other teachings of the bible (and one wonders where these principles are when all this infighting occurrs? but I digress) ... but the movement to impress christian religious values upon the United States Governement not only violates the principles this country was founded upon, it is a path that is sure to lead to nothing but further division, anger, fighting, and quite likely, to the complete destruction of our democracy. Of course, those who support this idea of "christian values" in our governement will loudly argue that such a thing could never lead to the destruction of our nation, which merely adds weight to the idea that it will do so, indeed must do so.

The founding fathers created our nation, and our laws because they wished to give every individual the maximum freedom, while still maintianing a stable and just society. And to this end, they attempted to give all people religious freedom. The idea of "seperation of church and state" is one of the most important ideals behind our democracy. Not only does it attempt to keep any one church out of governmental affairs, it also keeps the government out of religious affairs; something the "religious right" tends to forget.

In fact, these people, who wish to foist christian values upon our government are only hurting themselves.

Most often, the ones most vocal in this movement to force christian ideals upon the entire nation through the passage of federal laws, are members of one or another demomination of Protestant Christianity. Now, an unbiased look at Protestant Christianity shows plainly that it is divided into many smaller sects. Even the largest ones are not a majority. The largest are likely Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Babtists. One might also include Moroms as one of the major sects of Protestantism. All the rest are much smaller sects, sometimes with only a few churches nationwide. And the differences between all of these, while apparently minor when viewed from outside, can become major points of division to those inside the sects themselves.

Lutherans are hardly going to convince Presbyterians to follow their interpretations of the bible, Lutheranism being nearly identical to Catholicism but for the belief in the infallibility of the Pope. Lutherans say Mass, have confessions, pray to Mother Mary, and otherwise follow all the rituals of Catholic belief, but do not take orders from the Vatican.

Methodists are closer in beliefs and practices to Lutherans. Presbyterians might seem more like Babtists... but none of these would be willing to give up their own specialized interpretations of scripture in favor of any other. So, overall, it is readily apparent that there would be absolutely no way to turn all of Protestant Christianity into an unified group, with identical aims.

And because this is a democratic nation, if the seperation of church and state were abolished, it would start us down a slippery slope which would eventually end in a State Sponsored Religion. This is inevititable. Simply look at the history of government and religion and this fact becomes self evident. And if the religion that becomes our national religion is chosen by "majority rule" the majority today would be Catholicism. If this movement takes too long to gain complete control, there is every danger that the State Religion would likely be Islam. Islam is undoubtably, and inarguably, the fastest growing religion in the world (and that includes, in the United States).

Now, it may or may not be a beneficial thing to put an end to the practice of abortion, to ban gay marriages, to allow prayers in schools, and all the other things which the religious right is constantly trying to force upon everyone... it is not our purpose to argue those points here. What we do wish to show is simply this: it is a slippery slope, and once we start down that slope, when we arrive at the bottom, the people who pushed us over the edge the hardest will end up the most displeased by the final destination.

Not only is there every chance that the largest numbers of these people will find that the state approved and mandated religion will not be their own personal religion, but all those who have not forced ther own sects ideas into law will be ready to revolt. We would end up having a religious war unlike any previously seen in history. Each sect would wish that itself, and only itself would be arbiters of what everyone must believe. And not one of these sects or denominations would be willing to accept any of the others as a state sponored and state mandated religion. And this does not even consider the dissatisfaction and anger and actions of those who believe in no religion, or have not decided what they wish to believe.

It is all of a piece. Either we keep government out of religion, and religion out of government; or we return to the days of religious warfare, each and every sect battling to enforce their own interpretations of scriptures upon everyone else... because we all, each and every one of us, know that our view is the only right view.

I beseech you all, stop trying to push your religious beliefs upon our governement. It is not good for the government, it is not good for the other churches, and it is not good for your own.