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How ironic that as Iraq struggles with the noble and hopefully not insurmountable task of forging a democratic government out of the crucible of religious fundamentalism, the reverse phenomenon is underway in America. We already have a president whose religious beliefs led him to support the teaching of religion (Intelligent Design) in public school science classes. His faith-based initiative tears down the separation of church and state. The public at large is engaged in legal and political debates about the “sacredness†of marriage, the religious implications of stem cell research, and, of course, that old standby, “the sanctity of life.†Now I know that debates about these issues have been raging for years, but never before has there been such an opening for the value judgments of conservative Christians to be codified into law. And we’re worried about Iraq? We need to start worrying about America. In fact, we need to start panicking about America. I’ll leave you with a quote from my favorite church/state separatist: “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own†31 Responses to “The EnGoddening Continues”Leave a Reply |
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Scariest news story of the day goes to the LA Times and its 
I love that Jefferson quote. Never saw it before, but it now ranks as one of my all-time favorite quotes. Thanks for sharing.
About to hit the bed, so I’ll have to read the article later, but your summary causes two immediate reactions: scary and infuriating.
I believe that GB and his retinue may not be as religious as they’d have us think. It’s easy to hide behind the most powerful and fundamentalist group in the US when you are trying to further your goals. They are latching onto the evangelical movement only because it suits their aims: aquisition of power and wealth. When the christian conservative movement no longer suits their purposes, they’ll find someone else’s coat-tails to ride on. Also, religion is the perfect shield, because the leader can always say, “How can you question God’s will?” What you are seeing, therefore, is a lot of people being hoodwinked into believing that the man who lies to start wars and give polluters free reign of our national environmental treasures is really a religios man. Yeah, right.
You are undoubtedly correct, Matt, that the White House’s great Christian suck up is the result of Karl Rove’s electoral machinations more than a genuine ouflowing of the Bushies’ collective religiosity. The GOP has effectively conned poor people into voting for policies that help rich people by wrapping their ideology in the hues of Christian piety. This all happened, however, because someone did the math. And the sad truth is that conservative Christians (evangelicals, fundamentalists, all of them) are growing as a percentage of the population while secularists, liberals, and the general category of “others” are shrinking. So long as it is an effective electoral strategy to court the Christian vote, we can expect our secular democracy to pay the price. I don’t see a way out of this essentially mathematical conundrum.
i love chewing on this topic of religion and state..but lately i am confounded. bare with me while i try to get some things straight here – the US is a deeply religious nation and always has been. GW and his cronies use this to appeal and get support from the masses. in return, the church is granted access to Capitol hill. church pet projects get pushed to the top and the masses are engaged. and while we’re all arguing about putting the 10 commandments on a front lawn, environmental laws are being repealed, our civil liberties are being eroded and we’re at war 15 months after “official combat has ended.”
religion is the great distraction. matt, you made a good point about the political machine using religion today like they used patriotism in 2001. they’ll discard it once it doesn’t work anymore. for that matter, i believe they’re using GW too.
how did we get here?? or is this how it was designed? i’m a HUGE fan of the founding fathers, but the american revolution was probably one of the only (?) revolutions spurred by the bourgeois class. they wanted freedom for self-determination (but not for their slaves) and many of them supported the crown up until the british began over-taxing them.
sorry for being all over the place. thanks lauren for making me think.
You could be right, Erica, that this whole church/state, intelligent design hysteria is meant to distract us from the chaos underway in Iraq as well as from many other extremely pertinent issues. However, I do think the religion issue is important in its own right because it has the power to establish long-standing modifications to our constitution and our way of life. Personally, I couldn’t care less about a sculpture of the ten commandments on someone’s lawn. As far as I’m concerned, the Ten commandments are literature not religion. The bible itself is literature and we shouldn’t be scared of it, nor should we permit religious leaders to appropriate it. But much is lost when we blur the line, for example, between religion and science in public schools. We are already seeing a fast decline in the number of world class scientists the US produces. Are we prepared for the trickle down effect this will have on our economy as American’s school children–well versed in the principles of creationism though they may be–take up their place in the high tech world others are creating for them?
And please don’t apologize for being all over the place. My posts are meant to inspire exactly this kind of discussion. It’s here in the comments section that the real work of the blog takes place. So ramble on!
As an aside, I remember reading a recent article that 44 percent of Americans attend church on a weekly basis, as opposed to 14 percent of Europeans. I wish I could find a link to the article; I found it fairly interesting(it was in reference to the Pope, who feared Europe was becoming entirely Godless). For my part, I saw the article as the first clear sign of Europeans becoming more advanced than Americans. But regardless, religion is certainly a powerful weapon in modern day American politics.
Ajit, I can confirm anecdotally that Europeans (of the English persuasion at least) are much less religious than Americans. Not only are there far fewer fundamentalist types here but atheism does not carry the stigma it does in the US. As for being more advanced, well, I’d like to believe it. I really would, but then we do have the English the blame for Reality TV.
americans definetly attend church more than most first world nations. but here they often serve as more than places of worship. in brooklyn (“borough of churches”), the pastors are also civil leaders for neighborhoods that are otherwise politically invisible. bible meetings are social gatherings…etc. they serve as the missing glue in many instances that bind communities, which may not be as necessary in countries where most of the people have a common history or heritage.
but it is curious that the US is such a religious country. why? have we become more religious or have other countries become less? is it the backlash in europe?? i know countries like spain and ireland have turned against the church because it’s failure to stand up for it’s people in the past.
just so i’m completely incoherent on this topic, let me leave you all with this from thomas paine “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
I love the Paine quote, Erica. And your point about churches being a critical means of social organization is a very good one. The civil rights movement evolved from churches as did the abolitionist movement. Their ability to organize people around a moral crusade is what makes churches so powerful, and this power can be used for good or ill. I think the balance has tipped as of late toward ill.
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