As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
In the beginning, there was the Constitution. Contained within that document (specifically, the 1st Amendment) was something called the Establishment Clause. The Founding Fathers feared that zealots might try to force their religious beliefs on the young American government, so they inserted the Establishment Clause into the 1st Amendment. This became the basis for what we know today as the separation of Church and State. For almost 230 years now, America has successfully kept religion separate from affairs of state, no mean feat in a nation where 80% self-identify as Christian.
Officially, America is a majority Christian nation with a secular government, NOT a Christian nation, the claims of people like Bryan Fischer and Glenn Beck notwithstanding (See the above excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli above). That difference is not as subtle as one might think. All that’s needed to understand how religion corrupts governance is to look at countries like Iran and Pakistan, where religious considerations and affairs of state are one and the same. In a truly inspired effort to avoid the tyranny of the majority, the Founding Fathers promulgated the Establishment Clause in order that government not be used to advance the interests of a particular religion. That hasn’t stopped those who refuse to acknowledge the separation of Church and State from working overtime to break down that barrier. Until the early ’80s, those efforts had been uniformly frustrated…and then came Ronald Reagan, who associated himself with a Conservative Christian movement called Dominionism, dedicated to the creation of a Christian government. Groups such as the Moral Majority began to lay the groundwork for converting American governance into the province of those who believed that America was blessed by God and as such must be ruled by biblical principles.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision in The Town of Greece v. Galloway represents the first major victory in Dominionism’s struggle to merge Church and State. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 5-4 decision, has driven the first stake into the heart of the Establishment Clause, a simple paragraph that has made American governance a secular undertaking since the founding of this nation.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Kennedy’s opinion, which holds that prayer adds gravity to public proceedings, provides the breach in the wall through which Dominionists will surge, inspired to continue their tireless efforts to turn America into a dominionist dictatorship Christian Paradise governed by biblical principles. When we look back on The Town of Greece v. Galloway 30 years from now, there’s a good chance we’ll recognize it as the starting point for the rise of American Theocracy.
And you wonder why I refer to these folks as the American Taliban….
The keystone in the wall separating Church and State having been removed, we should pause to remember what it’s like to live in a country in which a secular government doesn’t advance the interests of any one religion, where Buddhists, Jews, and Zoroastrians have the same legal rights as the Christian majority. The days remaining in that era appear to be numbered…and as that secular government begins to crumble, it will slowly but surely take our freedoms with it.
