Blue Notes from a Red Zone

That Old-Time Religion

In an earlier post, I suggested that the United States, while flirting dangerously with the dividing wall separating church and state, was not likely to topple into a true theocracy in the near future. I assumed that people like James Dobson and Pat Robertson would disagree, since their clear goal is to create a theocracy, and I'm sure they have a 12-point implementation plan. While it is likely that they have already crossed four of these points off the list, I don't think they will ever get more than half-way. Eventually, practicing Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others of faith will recognize that compromising the separation of church and state seriously erodes their freedom to worship as they see fit. Society will start bricking in those parts of the wall that have already been damaged.

Since writing these words, I have come to realize that few of my liberal colleagues residing in northwest Florida are as sanguine about this outcome as I am. They point to solid pieces of research such as that assembled by Kevin Phillips in "American Theocracy," which provides a compelling case for tracing the push for a radical, fundamentalist, Bible-based government back 150 years to reconstruction. Although there has been frequent intellectual and societal recoil from an ultra-right-wing, religious takeover from the American majority, there has never been a total rejection of these ideas. The would-be theocrats are diverted, not defeated, and emerge from a new corner when the dust settles. Each time their advance becomes stronger and more pronounced before being driven slightly underground again. Now, of course, the ultra-right wing has fully taken over the Presidency, the House of Representatives, the Senate leadership, and many key positions among the judiciary. Dismantling these inroads is not going to be easy.

Yet I take my hope from the fact that although the House Speaker, Senate President, US President and four of the members of the Supreme Court are all proponents of a dicatorial executive favored by the radical Christian right, they still find that there are limits as to how far they are willing to concede religious control of the US government. For all the posturing and bombast, we have not passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, Roe vs. Wade still stands, and evolution is still the cornerstone of most public biology classes.

Still, dangerous trends cannot be ignored. Patriotism has become frighteningly confused with religous beliefs, so that the top forwards I receive via e-mail tend to have soldiers saluting the flag with the cross in the background, or some similar imagery. Our military is in danger of being confused with an arm of the church, to the deep detriment of both institutions. The Christian right is also wedded to the idea of facing persecution and attack from every conceivable corner, thus increasing the belligerence and aggressiveness of what used to be considered a religion of love and empathy. These trends can, if unchecked, topple the nation from democracy into tyranny.

I still think that the majority of Americans are made uneasy by the extremist wing of the Christian fath, and that we will stop short of the brink of theocracy. My county schools still resist lay censorship, and ensure that textbooks are centered in the reality-based community rather than the faith-based fantasy one. If we can hold the line here, surely we can hold it anywhere.

Let us pray this is true.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 11:46 AM