Don't Get Me Started: The Creeping Danger Of Religion As Government

(Photo courtesy of Flickr.)

There was a day in America when the general population was leery of electing a Catholic president…yet John F. Kennedy was indeed elected. The arguments against included how “we” couldn’t allow the Catholic Church any access to political power or else the Pope would be directing American politics.

On September 12, 1960, Kennedy spoke these words:

"I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me."

He promised to respect the separation of church and state, and not to allow Church officials to dictate public policy to him.

By the 1980’s, Protestant - Catholic tensions had eased enough for the two religious groups to come together to form the "moral" coalition that put Reagan into the White House. But it wasn’t all a bed of roses, since Catholic Bishops were still imposing a test of religious loyalty by denying communion to politicians who advocated a pro-choice political position. The New York Times, in 1980, warned Bishops they would jeopardize “the truce of intolerance by which Americans maintain civility and enlarge religious liberty” if they didn’t change their practices regarding communion.

It hasn’t been all love and tolerance between the faiths since the ‘80’s, however. As recently as 2002, billboards in Oregon claimed the Pope was the anti-Christ, on behalf of an Adventist splinter group. But generally, we don’t currently view Catholics as the enemy, even though we have not elected another Catholic president since Kennedy.

Now, we have GOP candidate, the Reverend Jodie Hice, who hopes to represent Georgia’s 10th U.S. House District, saying that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty does NOT apply to Muslims. While I’m sure that the Reverend Hice would also have a problem with a Catholic presidential candidate, he isn’t mentioning that in today’s world. (Maybe it’s just not that trendy, or perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst of the worst…)

Hice is a good conspiracy theorist. Along with Michele Bachman (R-MN) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Hice thinks the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly infiltrating America to impose Sharia law on all of us.

In Hice’s recent book, It’s Now Or Never, he writes, “Although Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology. It is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

As The Daily Kos points out, as far as geo-political structures go, you can’t beat Vatican City, which has its own ambassador.

But the issue here is our First Amendment’s sanctity. If we allow people like the Reverend Hice to promote and enforce the idea that a religion isn’t deserving of First Amendment protection, we allow the so-called “Christian” right to dictate which religions are deserving of Constitutional protection.

And we have seen plenty of examples of how intolerant the Christian right can be. Do we really want a faction of the American populace to get a toehold on power, when that power is so coveted for the purpose of re-classifying many Americans’ beliefs as not American enough? Do we want this judgmental faction to have the authority to enact and enforce laws, morals, and policy relating to education, social welfare, or human rights?

It is a very dangerous place we find ourselves in. The America we know and love is being fractured by religious fanatics and terrorists…and I do not refer to the Muslim Brotherhood.

I would fight to the death against ANY incursion by the Muslim Brotherhood to impose Sharia law on all of us. And I’m certain most of us would do the same. So why aren’t we as concerned with the Christian right, and their effort to pervert our freedoms in the name of their particular brand of faith?

Now let's turn to the issue of the geo-political structure behind many of today's groups, businesses and ideologies. Is ALEC not a geo-political structure? Well, it sure is! Does ALEC not have an anti-American bent? Well, it sure does!

Aren't religious groups becoming highly political? They sure are! Aren't they trying to impose Christian law on the entire country? Yes, they fucking are. For Hice and his cohorts to push a conspiracy theory about the nature of Islam on us for the purpose of enacting their petty conspiracy against us is appalling. It is the height of manipulation.

We need to keep our eyes open. We need to watch out for these religious plots to bring down our ACTUAL Constitutional freedoms. The minute the Christian right gets its bloody hooks into the power structure of this great nation, we are doomed to a life of PTL and "Merry Christmas" ONLY.

That is NOT what America was founded for, or about. These fanatics are only getting a toehold on politics because they are OUR fanatics. If they hailed from elsewhere, we would not give them an inch, lest they take a mile.