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American Theocracy
In response to the attached cartoon, I responded to a site that displayed it and wanted to share my thoughts:
Many if not most of the founders were Deists (those who believe in an organizational principle and/or a deity that created but does not interfere in any way with the acts of mankind) or Congregationalists (a “liberal” anti-Calvinist sect of protestantism with diversity of beliefs); and many had freethinking, agnostic, or outright atheist sentiments, including Washington, John Adams, and that great father of American Freedom to Believe (Or Not), Thomas Jefferson. It can hardly be said (unless you say it often enough people start to believe it true) that the United States was founded as a Christian country. Bunk! Not proven.
The Ten Commandments are so obviously time-worn (experts believe the oldest books of the O.T. are no more than 6,000 years old), only those nostalgic for the laws of the desert warlord tribes (think backwoods Afghanis, for example) could possibly think that they apply to modern man. The Judeo-Christian take on the Decalogue is hardly harmonious (read the great writing on the Commandments by Christipher Hitchens). They cannot even agree if “Thou shalt not kill” means just that, or just “thou shalt not [murder].” Again, as with Levitican prohibitions, these laws cannot escape the fate known as situational ethics. As with the Commandments, those who condemn, say, homosexuality, as verboten in Leviticus, betray nothing so much as cafeteria theology: why don’t we stone to death Jews and Christians who shave?
The theocratic movement in this nation will do anything to take us back to, roughly, medieval Europe, with its witch burnings and wholesale pogroms against everyone from Cathars to Freemasons. Is this what we want? The point of your cartoon is that theocratic true believers are anti-American, and as I agree completely with that sentiment, I applaud your dissemination of it.
Many if not most of the founders were Deists (those who believe in an organizational principle and/or a deity that created but does not interfere in any way with the acts of mankind) or Congregationalists (a “liberal” anti-Calvinist sect of protestantism with diversity of beliefs); and many had freethinking, agnostic, or outright atheist sentiments, including Washington, John Adams, and that great father of American Freedom to Believe (Or Not), Thomas Jefferson. It can hardly be said (unless you say it often enough people start to believe it true) that the United States was founded as a Christian country. Bunk! Not proven.
The Ten Commandments are so obviously time-worn (experts believe the oldest books of the O.T. are no more than 6,000 years old), only those nostalgic for the laws of the desert warlord tribes (think backwoods Afghanis, for example) could possibly think that they apply to modern man. The Judeo-Christian take on the Decalogue is hardly harmonious (read the great writing on the Commandments by Christipher Hitchens). They cannot even agree if “Thou shalt not kill” means just that, or just “thou shalt not [murder].” Again, as with Levitican prohibitions, these laws cannot escape the fate known as situational ethics. As with the Commandments, those who condemn, say, homosexuality, as verboten in Leviticus, betray nothing so much as cafeteria theology: why don’t we stone to death Jews and Christians who shave?
The theocratic movement in this nation will do anything to take us back to, roughly, medieval Europe, with its witch burnings and wholesale pogroms against everyone from Cathars to Freemasons. Is this what we want? The point of your cartoon is that theocratic true believers are anti-American, and as I agree completely with that sentiment, I applaud your dissemination of it.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by D R Hosie on -
Here is the cartoon in question:
As to the comments by James Martin, - I doubt you'll get any arguments here.
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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on -
I just can't resist preaching to the choir. You should pardon the expression.
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Permalink Reply by Olga Spelts (Human Bean) on -
Agreed! I think its problematic that todays religious (mainly christians) are so open about forcing theocracy on America. They dont even give secular reasons for their views and their hypocrisy is astounding!For example would they like it if Hindus wanted to make it illegal to eat beef? The preachers I think as well as the organizations that fund them such as Focus on the Family, ect are the ones spreading this myopia. Wasnt it true that at one time the religious tried to stay OUT OF politics because they thought it would taint their purity? What the hell happened to that?! (there really should be a way of combining the explamation with question mark)
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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on
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"Wasnt it true that at one time the religious tried to stay OUT OF politics because they thought it would taint their purity?" This is the whole point of Americans United, whose leader is a minister. It continues to amaze me that this Jeffersonian church/state separationist group works to protect the rights to atheists as much as believers. That is, they see the establishment of one religion as official as the greatest threat to democracy. Today, however, Americans United and the evangelicals are in mortal combat, the Christers failing to see that attempts at dissolution of the barrier between ecclesiastical dogma and political leadership have proved anethema for centuries. It's a return to the Dark Ages.
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Permalink Reply by Alex Catgirl on -
. Wasn't it true that at one time the religious tried to stay OUT OF politics because they thought it would taint their purity? What the hell happened to that?!
Christians believe that left to our own devices, we would push them into Ghettos, like many European countries did with the Jews or Americans did with inner city blacks. Christians would never have a say in how the nation was run, they would be discriminated against in employment, people would boycott businesses owned by Christians, churches would only be allowed in the ghettos, etc.
I think that's a marvellous idea actually, but I don't see it happening any time soon anywhere. A world without faith, what more could I ask ... never mind I can ask for a lot.
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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on
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You forgot one of their paranoid delusions. They have to wear purple arm bands over their clothes reading: "CHRISTER."
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Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on -
James, I see the glass half full. Surveys show the rise of atheism or the non-religious is trending up. Large chunks of this country are getting less and less religious. Call me an optimist, but I can't see 38 states joining together to overturn the First Amendment, which is really what it would take. For every Texas and Alabama, there is a Vermont and Massachusetts.
I think we're seeing the theocradopes Battle of the Bulge now. They might stick the Ten Commandments here and change a textbook there, but over time they will loose the war.
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Permalink Reply by Olga Spelts (Human Bean) on
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Thats kind of depressing that it said only about 1 million identify as atheists. It was also surprising to see that vermont has 38% that are irreligious? Guess that still doesnt stop the right wing and religious chauvanism?
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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on
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Hope you're right Dave.
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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on -
Here is a neat little essay for the 10 commandment freaks. The US owes more to a Greek gentleman called Solon than to a dehydrated homicidal maniac Jew that hears voices in the desert.
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