By Mike Appleton, Weekend Contributor
“All governments are theocracies. We now live in a secular humanist theocracy. I want to change that to a government with God at its head.”
-Gary DeMar (quoted in John Sugg, “A Nation Under God,” Mother Jones (December, 2005)
When I started first grade in 1951, each school day began with the Pledge of Allegiance. We recited “one nation, indivisible,” because people understood that fidelity to one’s country is not a religious virtue. The National Prayer Breakfast was not on anyone’s calendar because it didn’t exist. Politicians felt no compulsion to invoke God’s blessings on the United States at the conclusion of every speech. Protestants opposed every effort to secure public funding of Catholic parochial schools in order to preserve the “wall of separation” between church and state. The corner grocer didn’t care whether a customer was gay or had been born again. Textbooks were not reviewed by religious committees for conformity with the King James Version. No serious person had yet suggested that insentient, artificial commercial entities could magically channel the religious beliefs of their shareholders. And no one complained that a war was being waged against religion.
But following some of the events at this year’s Values Voter Summit, I have become nostalgic for 1951.
The Summit is the premiere annual political event for conservative Christian evangelicals, and making an appearance has become almost a required pilgrimage for Republican presidential candidates who desire the support of the religious right base of the party. Those in attendance this year heard many of the usual rants against same-sex marriage, abortion and the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. However, those concerns did not top the priority list. Instead, a 39% plurality of those polled at the conference believe that the most important issue facing the country today is religious liberty.
So how is this possible? The past 30 years have seen an explosion in government support of religion. Millions of dollars in public funds are provided to a variety of so-called “faith-based” programs. Taxpayers support charter schools with decidedly sectarian curricula all across the country. A number of states provide tax credits to enable parents to send their children to religious schools. Religious institutions and, after Hobby Lobby, for-profit businesses as well, have been granted exemptions from compliance with portions of the ACA. This is in addition to the exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation which religious institutions already enjoy in their hiring and firing practices. Religious groups distribute bibles in public schools and operate after-school programs on school property to proselytize grammar school children. The Town of Greece decision now permits governments to schedule ceremonial prayer in accordance with local majoritarian religious preferences. Most rational people would agree that freedom of religion and religious expression are hardly at risk.
The comments of several of the event speakers may furnish us a clue. Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Institute repeated the false story of the child disciplined for saying grace before eating her lunch. Michele Bachmann reminded the audience that the battle against Islamic terrorism is “spiritual warfare.” Gary Bauer accused President Obama of protecting Muslims while ignoring the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Jason and David Benham, whose proposed television program on HGTV was cancelled after revelations of their virulently anti-gay activities, compared themselves to victims of ISIS, silenced for their Christian beliefs. And Sen. Ted Cruz, who for the second year in a row won the presidential straw poll, intoned “We need a president who will speak out for people of faith, for prisoners of conscience.” So for the attendees at the Values Voter Summit, there is indeed a war on Christianity. It is being waged by Muslims and by those who object to intolerance.
But the whole story is really darker. When members of the Christian right speak of freedom of religion, what they mean is freedom for a particular brand of conservative Christianity. Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, the principal sponsor of the annual Summit. He is neither a legal scholar nor a theologian, but that does not matter. In Mr. Perkins’ view, religious freedom does not apply to Islam. It also does not apply to Christians who support gay rights. In fact, religious liberty is reserved solely for those holding “orthodox religious viewpoints. It has to have a track record, it has to come forth from religious orthodoxy.” Mr. Perkins’ First Amendment does not compel government neutrality toward religion; it requires preferential treatment for those Christian sects whose doctrines adhere to Mr, Perkins’ notion of orthodoxy. He is a theocratic dominionist in religious liberty’s clothing.
And that, in a nutshell, is what the war on religion in America is all about. It is a war declared by Christian fundamentalists on all religious traditions deemed non-conforming. The goal is a society in which separation of church and state is eliminated and religious pluralism rejected as unbiblical. Ted Cruz is merely the latest last hope for the hapless.
Jon,
Have you read, killing jesus by Bill O’RILEY? I think you’ll find that offensive term in his book….. So is the literay censorship week still going on? Maybe you best never let your children read john Steinbeck or Samuel Clemons….. Really offendive terms in some parts….
Another thing, you let some get away with saying HS and I use BS and a comment is deleted for violation of the civil foul language rules? I thought there were only 4 banned words…. Will your devine an updated list so I know what’s legitimate rather than being singled out…. If I know the rules, I can abide by them, if the rules keep changing for each person and some comments are not deleted per your civility policy…. You might want to get a reality check. Unless, it’s your intent to have some of us run off…. Then just be honest…
Do you like it when judges change the rules for the favored party…. And you know it…. What do you do? Make a record, correct?
It’s as if the person’s own faith was illegitimate, very much like how fundamentalist Christians think and are taught.
docmadison, I, too, find their baptizing of the dead to be offensive. I’ve been doing research on ancestors and find that so many, regardless of their own faith, many of whom were pastors, have been baptized as Mormons. And my chagrin to find that one of those ancestors was what’s-his-name who founded the sect. But they are baptizing ALL of them, not just his descendents.
The Values Voter Summit has some pretty scary ideas.
My elementary school experience included the pledge of allegiance, where I mumbled whatever came into my mind because there were so many more important things than a flag, and yes, I got the symbolism; the lord’s prayer where I just sat quietly trying to keep the knot in my stomach from turning into up-chuck; and all the other inane stuff mentioned up-thread about school in the 50s. A desk was going to provide protection from a bomb? Really? I loved learning but school had some serious problems.
David, “Jefferson…. invited all the religious sects to come to campus, and he gave away land to them. ” It’s important to note that he invited ALL. He had a building set aside with rooms for the various denominations, not that each sect got land.
bettykath wrote: “It’s important to note that he invited ALL. He had a building set aside with rooms for the various denominations, not that each sect got land.”
I’m not sure where you get this common chapel notion that he had a building with rooms for each sect. Can you share a source for that information?
Although Jefferson’s vision for all religious sects to establish themselves on campus was not fully realized, he did extend an invitation to every sect within the State, offering them land on campus to establish their professors and theological seminaries.
I originally read this information elsewhere, but a quick google search gives this article that says the same:
page 7
“… the privilege of erecting Theological Seminaries on the territory [grounds] belonging to the university was cheerfully extended to every Christian denomination within the limits of the State.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/downloads/newsletter/ThomasJeffersonandReligionattheUniversityofVirginia.pdf
Jefferson invited all the sects to establish their own Professors, and also to establish their own schools of theology. He wanted them to have free access to the library and other resources on campus. Jefferson was not against religion, as the modern secularists today would have you believe. He was against sectarianism. Jefferson’s vision was for the university not to favor any particular religious establishment, but to embrace all of them to mix together on campus and to teach their diverse viewpoints. He wanted public education to teach religion, and to be supportive of religion, but not to endorse any particular establishment of religion.
Dusty,
Mormon proselytizing is not all benign. Their policy of ‘baptizing’ dead Jews – most especially those lost in the Holocaust – is beyond offensive. It is another policy that they may have changed recently – along with finally allowing blacks to serve in the ministry.
They baptize every dead person they can – but it is their attention to dead Jews that is especially repugnant.
http://vectorish.com/wp-content/plugins/vectorish-function/file/preview/gods-hand-vector.jpg
In the beginning, before bandwidth, there was nothingness. Out of that endless void God and His heavenly host created…Arpanet, and it was good. But the scientific, military and computer angels Who dwelled in Arpanet were lonely, so They brought forth Browser, and the Web was born. It, too, was good and the children of the internet lived in peace and harmony and were fruitful and multiplied, but God warned His people not to eat of the forbidden fruit of commercialism. Alas, they disobeyed and soon barbarians drove the children of the internet out of Paradise. God, in His wrath, turned away from His people and condemned them to wander in the digital wilderness, but from time to time He will suddenly appear in mailing lists, chat rooms and discussion forums to remind us sinners that we could be saved if only we would hearken unto Him.
http://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/warriorshtm/god.htm
The only real contact I ever had w/ Mormons was in the Bogota airport. I was travelling solo w/ our newly adopted son. The woman was very attentive and loving to my active son, we Italians always remember a kindness to our children. I remember thinking how tough a job it must have been in the VERY Catholic Colombia for a Mormon missionary.
DBQ, You are a big plus to threads when you comment.
For new folks here, markernes is an infrequent but always interesting commenter. I disagree w/ some of his views. But, he is passionate. mark is bound to have negative views of religion, being a porn journalist. When the topic is porn, mark is w/o question the expert here. I think mark would agree that the govt. is just as pernicious in attacking the First Amendment rights of his industry as is religion. And, the govt. has the ultimate power over our lives. When mark goes all badass on religion I just let it go. I love iconoclasts and mark is indeed one. He’s a hardcore Dem. But, covering the porn industry, how could he be anything but hardcore and a Dem!! I wonder if Bubba has a porn stash?
Nick S wrote: “But, covering the porn industry, how could he be anything but hardcore and a Dem!!”
You’d be surprised how (sadly) several adult producers are Republicans. Apparently they’re able to separate the part of the brain that produces sexually explicit content from the part that seems to like conservatives’ attitudes towards limited government (which of course they’re not really for) and lower taxes (for the rich, like some of these producers are) and such-like even though those conservatives would shut down porn companies in an instant if they could, except…
“I wonder if Bubba has a porn stash?”
I’m guessing that pretty much all politicians, conservative pundits and even many evangelicals have porn stashes. (Jonathan? This could be your chance to come clean…)
@ doc
Well, this was in elementary school….so perhaps the children didn’t actually attend the “service” itself [if that is the term] but went to a children’s section. Sort of like Sunday school, I suppose. I don’t know much about the Mormon religion.
In any case there wasn’t a repeat visit and no hard feelings. None of the Mormon’s that we know, associate with, work along side have ever been pushy or inappropriate about their religion. But then again….same thing holds for those christian fundamentalist types in our area. Not pushy or in your face about religion. Perhaps it is the small town thing. We all have to live with each other and rub elbows more often than you do in a city. So we all learn: best not to discuss religion or politics with people unless you know where they are coming from. No point in arguing with someone who you will have to interact with on an almost daily basis later 🙂
Dusty,
Another interesting note from you. I thought there were pretty rigid rules about who is allowed in the Church which sometimes means that parents outside the faith cannot attend their child’s wedding. There must be some portions of the church that are more public than others.
@ doc
You’re welcome. Glad to have been of help.
Dusty,
Boy was I wrong about women serving as missionaries. They have been allowed since 1898. Thanks for the lead that prompted me to research.
@ docmadison
Yes….this was some time ago….my daughter is now 36 years old. About the Mormon church….I have no idea, but likely you are correct in that women are not “Elders”. Possibly they have a separate category for women. /shrug. The Catholic church used to be very firm on no women priests as well.
My daughter’s friend asked if she could go to church, because my daughter was staying over for a weekend while I was out of town and they were going to go. This was back in elementary school. So, like my Mom, I felt she might as well see what other faiths do. We, ourselves haven’t attended regular church services for years and years. She went and said it was confusing, didn’t make sense and was boring. She didn’t tell her friend that but declined to go again. There were no hard feelings and no pressure to convert.
No big deal.
Dusty
That’s an interesting story about your daughter’s friend. I had thought women being allowed to go on missions was a new policy. I wonder….could it be that women were allowed to do service work, but were not allowed to proselytize and become ‘Elders”? The Mormon Church is very firm that no women can be ministers. And much emphasis on ‘very’.
wow, Darren got an upgrade!
Darren is God? Just kidding!
@Annie
I vote for it being an Act of God, who is personally intervening to save us all. 🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@NickS
I agree that this website used to be a branch of the DNC on weekends. It was like there was a pipeline from the DNC straight to them, then to here. But, they are gone now and have their own little clubhouse where they can be shills for whatever silly little causes they desire. It is probably better for all of us here to just let them be, and forget about them. Hopefully, self-flagellation will keep them occupied until Gabriel blows his trump.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
MarkK, might be an Act of God or more likely WordMess ate them.