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by Cathryn Sykes
Wanda knows I'll rise to this bait. She just loves making me strain my brain. So here goes. (And hey, this little essay includes murder, mayhem, adultery and beheadings, so stay tuned!) First, just because someone believes in God doesn't mean he agrees others should be forced to share that belief. So it's not necessarily true that because 86% of Americans believe in God, 86% also feel we should make everyone recite the Pledge with "under God" included.. ( I especially like the part about telling those who don't want "under God" in the Pledge to just sit down and be quiet. You use a different word to identify your Deity and suddenly, even though you're an American, you have no freedom of speech anymore?) I actually have no problem with having "under God" in the Pledge as long as the Pledge is neither "official" nor required. Unfortunately, some schools are making it mandatory...which means that little kids who usually pray to Allah or Buddha or Vishnu —or don't pray at all—will either be publicly humiliated or forced to profane their faith.. (Does God appreciate forced faith? Or faked faith? I doubt it.) Then, of course, we get into the whole question of separation of church and state, which I think is one of the most misunderstood concepts around. Why did the Founding Fathers put that concept into the Constitution? (Please, not the exact words... the concept!) Because they wanted all Americans to be atheists? Not at all. They wanted Americans to be free to worship as they pleased, and the separation of church and state is the best way to guarantee that. I once read somewhere that the U.S. has more churches per square mile than any other country on earth. You can specifically thank the separation of church and state for that. This separation was a fairly new and radical idea in the late 1700's when our constitution was written. Throughout most of human history, the state—those who ruled—worked hand in glove with the priests of whatever religion was officially recognized. The priests supported a ruler's power through a concept called "the divine right of kings" in effect declaring that whatever god the people worshiped had chosen that person to rule. (If you look at documents referring to King George III, for instance, you'll often see him referred to as "George, by the grace of God, King.") This tended to keep people in line, since rebellion against the ruler was also labeled heresy against the god that had "chosen" that ruler. People might be willing to give up their lives to fight a tyrant; but not their hope of heaven. In return, rulers supported the state religion by, in effect, making it illegal to follow any other faith. Do that, and the priests would declare you a heretic. This made you a criminal in the eyes of the state as well, and you were subject to fines, imprisonment and even execution. Perhaps the best example of how destructive this could be was the Tudor period in England. Remember Henry VIII? The king with six wives? I won't go into gory detail (go read the whole story for yourself....better than any soap opera, I promise) but basically, Henry started out as a devout Catholic. Catholicism was England's state religion. Since there was no separation of church and state, this made all Protestants criminals, subject to imprisonment, torture and death and this was exactly what happened to many Protestants who refused to abandon their faith. Then Henry wanted an annulment from his wife, Katherine of Aragon. She'd produced a daughter, Mary, but hadn't borne a male child. (Henry also had his eye on another woman). The Pope refused to grant an annulment and threatened to excommunicate Henry. So Henry decided he'd create his own church, with himself as its leader, and the Protestant Church of England came into being. Suddenly, all Catholics were heretics and criminals, including all nuns, monks and priests. Henry confiscated Catholic property and imprisoned or executed those who resisted conversion to the new "state" religion. He also granted himself a marriage annulment. His wife was was labeled a whore, his daughter Mary a bastard. Henry's new wife had a daughter, Elizabeth, but did not produce a son. Henry's eye wandered again. Forget annulment; this time, he had his Queen accused and convicted of adultery, then beheaded. Eventually, he went through four more wives and did manage to sire a son, a sickly boy who died almost immediately after being crowned. That left two claimants for the throne, two daughters of Henry VIII, the devoutly Catholic Mary and the Protestant Elizabeth. Time for an out-and-out civil war, Church of England Protestants against Catholics. The Catholics prevail and make Mary Queen. She makes Catholicism the official religion again and proceeds to jail, torture and execute all those now-heretical Protestants, earning for herself the title "Bloody" Mary. (And yes, that is the origin of the name of the blood-colored drink.) Then Mary falls ill and dies. The Protestants shout "God is on our side!" and declare Elizabeth queen. At this point, England's "state" religion has switched, in the span of a lifetime, from Catholicism to Protestantism to Catholicism to Protestantism again.. And each time, ordinary citizens who simply wanted to practice their faith have been brutalized, imprisoned, killed. But now history takes a very, very interesting turn. Young Elizabeth is a very intelligent person, who truly loves both her country and her people. She's grown up with civil war and she's sick of it. She's sick of seeing her subjects persecuted and killed for their faith. She has to make the Church of England her state religion because the Protestants are her power base and she can't risk alienating them, but she does manage to do something extraordinary. She never makes religious tolerance official policy, but she quietly gets the word out to her Catholic subjects: "Look. Officially you're a heretic and a criminal. But keep the practice of your faith behind closed doors....be quiet and discreet.... don't challenge my right to be Queen....and I won't "officially" notice you're a Catholic....I won't seek you out....I won't hunt you down. Celebrate Mass if you wish, but do it quietly...and maybe we can keep from ripping this nation apart again. Maybe we can make England whole and peaceful again." And it worked. It wasn't true separation of church and state, but it was a step in that direction, and one of the first governmental recognitions that faith should be a matter between God and the individual worshiper, not something forced on people by the threat of discrimination, torture and death. Slowly, over the next hundred years or so, the concept of religious tolerance by the state became more refined...and eventually evolved into the idea that government should never do anything to establish a "state" religion. No government should in any way prefer one religion over another. People should be free to worship....or even not worship.... according to the dictates of their own conscience. And that is the concept of the separation of church and state. At the time, this idea didn't become the rule in most countries, because the ruler/religion partnership was too well established and too much the power base of both rulers and religions. But it was adopted by a little group of rebels in a thinly-populated corner of the earth. They wrote it into their Constitution after they won their freedom from one of those "chosen by God" kings. It became one of the cornerstones of their nation's freedom. We should do everything we can to keep it that. No? Want to blur that separation? Want to bring religion into government? Ask yourself first what it might be like if this was actually done. First, what religion would we make "official?" You've got to pick one, or you'll have to include them all and that would get so, so complicated. (Do you really want the teachings of Mohammed, Buddha and Zoroaster posted in your schoolrooms, right up there with quotes from the Bible? No? You surprise me. I thought bringing religion into government and the schools was the idea. Oh! Only your religion?) But we have to make a choice. I'm sure most of you (hey Wanda!) would want Christianity, but what form of Christianity? Let's face it, a lot of Christians consider each other headin'-for-hell heretics! Many Baptists regard Catholics as idolators, and the Methodists certainly wouldn't want to be forced to accept the Pope as their spiritual leader. Lutherans wouldn't be happy if the Mormon faith became the "top" religion, true? But let's take a crack at it. Purely for the sake of argument—because I could just as easily pick a Catholic or Southern Baptist or Quaker or any other Christian denomination or religion for this example— let's say that at the time that "separation" wall comes down, the President is a Mormon. Let's make the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the new state religion. All right! We can finally bring God into the halls of government! Now let's pass some laws... Just a few minor laws at first. A law, say, that removes the prohibition against employment discrimination based on religion. We Mormons ought to be able to hire who we want, true? If a Lutheran has trouble being promoted, or a Baptist or Jehovah's Witness can't get a job as a teacher in a public school, they can always convert, right? Post the Ten Commandments in every public place? Absolutely! Who could object to that? You don't have to read them if you don't want to, right? But let's also post the teachings of Joseph Smith and BrighamYoung. Again, if you don't like 'em, don't read 'em! If the Buddhists or Moslems or atheists or Jews or Baptists or Lutherans show up and really fuss, let them know they'll be put on a list of trouble-making "non-Mormons." Try to get an apartment or buy a home then! And let's begin teaching the Mormon faith in the public schools. Everyone should know about their country's official religion, right? It's their patriotic duty. No big deal. Put a statue of Joseph Smith, labeled "The Founder of America's Faith" in the U.S. Capitol. Who could object to that? We're a religious nation, right? Put a picture of Jesus on the one-dollar bill, with a picture of the Mormon Tabernacle on the other side. That will be pleasing to God, won't it? Who could object? Time for elections....our new President should be religious, right? And of course, a Mormon! Don't worry, if people want badly enough to serve in the Senate or Congress or the Supreme Court, they'll convert. Surely you don't want a Moslem or Buddhist as a Supreme Court Justice! (Do you, Wanda?) Or a Baptist or Catholic! Thank God, there are so much fewer Baptists and Catholics and Lutherans and Jews and Buddhists nowadays. They're so unpatriotic. Not real Americans at all. If they don't share the faith of the majority of Americans, they should just sit down and be quiet! Those Baptists! Those Jews! Those Catholics! They refuse to recite the new Pledge of Allegiance, the one that says "One Nation, under God, blessed by the teachings of Joseph Smith." We don't insist they believe it, just recite it. And they won't! How incredibly unpatriotic! Do these people love our country? Hardly! So we should pass another law. Just to protect our American way of life. If you want to be a soldier or policeman, you have to be a Mormon. If you want to buy property, you have to be a Mormon. If you want to teach our children, if you want to own a newspaper or TV station, if you want to be a doctor, if you want to vote, first prove you're like the rest of us real Americans.... become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! (Now go back through this. Substitute any other religion or Christian denomination for 'Mormon." I picked the Mormon faith purely at random, so please don’t start giving Mormons what my dad called the “stink-eye.” I could have used any other faith for my example. Southern Baptists. Wiccans. Presbyterians. Hindus. Episcopalians. The point is that we do not need an "established" religion, period, no matter how benign its followers think it is. We need to keep religion and government separate.) What? You think this could never happen here? Sure it could. Tyranny so often sneaks in, bit by bit, with little changes that people don't see. A law here. A custom there. A regulation added. A guarantee against discrimination deleted. A"them against us" speech that no one challenges. Half-truths that are accepted as whole truths. And the ultimate tool of the both the tyrant and false prophet: "I speak for God God is on my side. So anyone who disagrees SHOULD JUST SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET!" I don't know about some people, but the idea of living in this kind of country scares me to death. Throughout most of history, this kind of thinking was the norm.....until a few shining beacons of freedom came into being. Freedom to worship as you wish...or even not worship at all. The freedom of knowing your government sees you as equal to every other citizen, no matter what your religion. The idea that no one will force your children to learn or profess a faith not their own. The idea that prayer, as Christ taught, should not be a matter of public display, but a private conversation between each individual and his or her God. America is one of the most sincerely religious nations on earth. Here, faith is felt, not FORCED....and the separation of church and state is the reason why. Cathryn Sykes syryn@mac.com is a freelance writer and political independent who lives near Fort Worth, Texas. She became a Kerry supporter after checking and refuting a tidal wave of anti-Kerry stories sent her by her mostly-Republican friends. "As a writer, I can recognize very carefully crafted propaganda when I see it," she says. The tactics used by those she labels the Bushites "both angers and scares the heck out of me. Add to that the Administration's grandstanding, broken promises and frightening arrogance and you have people we really need to remove from power." |
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