“This is a Christian nation, based on Christian values.” “This country has only one King, and his name is Jesus Christ.” “We cannot rest until all of our judges and all of our leaders base all of their decisions on Christian values.” All of these statements of faith have a nice ring to them. They sound right. They sound like attitudes that we all should have toward our nation and its people. We all know that religion is a highly moral belief system. We all know that we should live by high morals and ethics. Being religious, being highly moral and being a patriotic American all seem to fall together as if they rightly belong together, like peas in a pod. Not only do these religious, moral and patriotic statements of faith fall together so nicely, but they are voiced with such sincerity and with such emotion, we find it hard to believe they do not all belong together. To top it all off, it is clear that the majority of the American public believes that this combination is true, and should be supported in every way. America, Christianity and morals are an inseparable Trinity, showing only separate manifestations of the same entity. They rightly belong together just as much as the Holy Trinity of the Christian church.
Yet these beliefs, as voiced above, grate against our nerves and grind against our souls. They are blatantly false, on multiple levels, and are threatening to destroy our democracy.
If, by America, we mean democracy, there is no doubt that our constitution was not founded on the Christian religion or on Christian beliefs. The Fathers of our democracy, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, and George Washington, were all fervently non-Christian. They found the Christian religion full of trumpery, wildly irrational doctrines, priest abuse, and clouded with meaningless rituals. They saw no value in this religion for this new government, and in fact, firmly believed that any assimilation of Christianity into democracy, in even the smallest degree, would destroy the value of that democracy. They saw that whenever any religion has been joined to any government, the result has been bigotry, suppression and cruelty. There are multiple statements by all of the above founders that they specifically opposed the presence of Christianity, in any form, in this new government. Fortunately for us, they saw it right.
It is easy for Christian zealots to think of their religion as highly moral, and a force for moral authority. There is no doubt that there is that element in all major religions. We have to give them credit. Each of them has the golden rule in some form. Each of them admonishes its followers to be humble and compassionate toward their neighbors, toward the elderly, children, poor, dispossessed, crippled and ill. Each of them deserves praise for these emphases on morals and ethics. Unfortunately, each of the religions stemming from the descendants of Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, also has an opposite pole. That pole consists of violent intolerance of all other humans who do not share their particular myth. Each of them preaches that all who have beliefs other than their particular mass psychosis, are going to burn in Hell forever. They often don’t mind helping others of other belief to their death, since these other people are, in their opinion, going to Hell anyway. Each of these religions, in addition to preaching compassion, also has rabid elements who preach this bigotry, hatred, and violent intolerance.
This intolerance of Christianity is in direct conflict with democracy. The golden pillar of democracy is tolerance for all people of all colors, genetic origin, talent, appearance, and belief. Democracy says that it does not care whether you are fat, thin, lazy, energetic, intelligent, dumb, short, tall, black, white, yellow, brown or red, where you came from, or what your genes are. Democracy says if you are an adult human of sound mind, you have the right to your own beliefs without interference from anyone else, and have the right to express that belief without harassment, punishment, or dispossession. You have the right to know any charges against you and have the right to face your accusers in court, state your case in front of a jury of your peers. All expression of belief is to be tolerated by all other humans in your society. In contrast to this glorious democratic pillar of tolerance, the cardinal sin of Christianity is intolerance. Christianity says that all other humans of all faiths other than Christianity are going to burn in Hell forever. Only those who profess belief in the Trinity and Jesus as Christ the Savior, are allowed to join the mass psychosis of an afterlife of eternal pleasure. All other humans are of little value, and are doomed. Throughout the history of Christianity, this intolerant, cruel face is the one which has shown itself the most prominently.
Democracy and conservative Christianity are mortal enemies. One stands for complete tolerance, and the other stands for rabid intolerance. Democracy no longer exists if Christianity becomes wedded to our government. Under Bush and Cheney, our civil liberties are being stripped away, federal judges are fired for supporting those civil liberties, citizens are thrown in secret jails and tortured, never being advised as to the charges against them, and never allowed access to a fair trial, and human torture is considered moral. Federal money is being given to Christian organizations for social programs, but is denied to Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. These Christian bigots are destroying our democracy.