RELIGION WILL BE THE DOWNFALL OF THE UNITED STATES

I have always thought that religion will be the downfall of the United States. From the time I looked out of my sixth-floor apartment window at the University of Illinois soon after I arrived in the U.S., my opinion has not changed. That apartment window overlooked the parking lot of a Baptist Church and the procession of people in and out on Sunday mornings reminded me of shift-work at a factory. When I found out about tithing, and social pressures that went with church attendance in the community, I was even more appalled…..and this was in the middle of a highly-regarded academic institution of 60,000 students.

     I was reminded of that time a few days ago, when it was the reported that the Southern Baptist Convention in the U.S. had just expelled two member churches, by unanimous consent of the board, because they were led by female pastors. PBS interviewed one of those pastors, who had been leading her church for 30 years. She seemed dumbfounded that internal conservative politics had turned on her and her church. PBS then ran a clip of one of the leading members of the convention rabidly exhorting his audience to follow his doctrine/interpretation that Jesus and the Bible demand that their followers to forbid women holding any leadership role in the church. To have a religious fanatic, or fanatics, setting such rules for their own church, which consists of over 47,000 churches and over 14 million members, is bad enough. However, when today, we have republican politicians, at the national and local levels, publically stating that religious, evangelical beliefs, should be the dominant feature of all public policy, it makes me consider the efficacy of promoting martyrdom.

     On one level, the unbelievable arrogance of any group, large or small, that can think they are the only ones who have correctly interpreted what they consider to be the word/orders of Jesus Christ, is not only totally idiotic, but blatantly wrong. It seems that each evangelical group believes they are the only ones who are right, when there are twenty other groups who also believe they are the only ones who are right, in the same town. Lunatics might be a better description of these groups. I guess it comes down to faith and, as we all know, it is impossible to argue logic with faith.

     I have said before that virtually every secular leader in history has tried to enforce the separation of church and state, for one simple reason: The church, whatever that may be, has the incredible advantage of faith, and that will almost always give it more power than secular rulers. If secular rulers allow “the church” to exercise its advantage in the public policy arena, they will forfit their power and control. For reasons I find almost criminally negligent, the Founding Fathers of the U.S. did not place a clause in the Constitution which specifically separates church and state. That opens the door to religious manipulation of all aspects of U.S. Government operations and policies.

     I have also reported on “The Brotherhood”, a group of religious, evangelical zealots in Washington, D.C., whose goal for the last half-century, has been to bring Jesus Christ into all aspects of the federal government. They are clandestine and effective. Netflix has recently aired a documentary on them, which is frightening.

     Given the behavior of religious evangelical fanatics in the U.S., their outreach, and their conviction that they are the only ones who know truth, and “the way”, they constitute a blatant threat to democracy in every sense of the word. From their point of view, if they are right, why should they listen to, or respect, anyone else. That is a direct path to dictatorship.

     They will tell you that they are following the path of Jesus Christ, but that is total bullshit. They are following their path, using a fabricated mythical faith for their own power-hungry agenda.

     Churches, regardless of their religion, have always been about controlling the masses, and their invention of faith has to be one of the most, if not the most, effective control mechanisms ever invented.

     If the current trend in the U.S. Republican Party is not fully recognized for what it is – an evangelical religious takeover – then the future of the country is doomed….in my humble opinion.