The Separation of Church and Hate

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Lately, there’s been a trend of people claiming there’s a war on Christianity and that they are being persecuted. I find this alarming that disagreeing with a religion or desiring religion to be left out of politics altogether is being confused with persecution.

church

This country was not founded as a Christian nation. It was founded on religious freedom. There is a difference. Had the founding fathers wanted the United States of America to be a nation of Christianity, they had plenty of opportunities to say so in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. In fact, in all 239 years of this country’s existence, and throughout all 27 amendments, not one law has been written with the Christian faith mentioned as the official religion of our nation or basis for our legal process.

The freedom of religion section of the constitution was written in response to the English laws establishing the Church of England as the law of the land. In this country, you can practice whichever religion you want but you cannot force those beliefs on anyone else. Living in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, I get to hear the story, very often, of how a Jewish admiral (the highest ranking at the time) bought Jefferson’s property to save it from fading into ruin. When asked why he did such a thing, he responded that it was simply for the fact that Jefferson had the forethought to write Freedom of Religion and make it able for him to practice his own religion in the land he loved and fought so bravely to protect. Jefferson, himself, stated that lighthouse were more useful than churches and even went so far as to write a version of the bible without the supernatural references and entitled it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.

However, today, I hear (especially conservative) Christians claiming their rights are being infringed upon and their faith is under attack. First off, your faith is between you and your deity of choice and no one else. Secondly, I am unaware of any right to practice the Christian faith that is being taken away. Your church is still open, you can still assemble there on your sabbath, you cannot be fired from your job because of the prayers you utter before bed and meal times,you cannot be denied medical treatment because of where you choose to worship, and discrimination based on religion is expressly forbade by our government. Conversely, you cannot use your beliefs to deny others their rights under our secular legal system.

They cite that prayer was removed from schools. This is false. School lead (state sponsored) prayer is forbidden because the government cannot sponsor any religion over another (see again Freedom of Religion). And the lawsuits filed in our highest court were not filed by godless heathens that hate Christians, they were filed by people of different religions (some were actually Christian based sects) that, rightly, objected to a taxpayer funded school deciding which religion to teach to their children. The Supreme Court has upheld time and time again the right to pray in school when not interfering with the time set aside for learning. You can pray before your cafeteria provided or brown bagged lunch, in between classes, during free period, and any other time when class is not in session. You are legally and constitutionally allowed to form a religious club and discuss your beliefs then. Religion can also be taught in schools as part of a humanities or history curriculum. But prayer has never been banned from schools.

This notion that we’ve always been a nation founded on Christianity puzzles me. “Under God” and “In God We Trust” were not creations of the 13 original colonies whilst bombs were bursting in air. They were added during the mid 50’s at the height of nationalism under the dreaded “Red Scare” and McCarthyism. Since then, they’ve been fused with the notion of Caucasian Jesus being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Apparently Hancock’s signature obscures the savior’s. The most fervent of Christian patriots disregard this, as well as the notion that other religions qualify for the same treatment under the law.

Christianity is, without a doubt, the most pervasive of religions practiced in the country. No one ever seems to think that the nonspecific god referenced at the end of the majority of political speeches refers to Allah, Buddha, or The Flying Spaghetti Monster. There are Christian broadcasting companies, radio networks, publishers, and celebrities. If they come under fire for anything, their reasoning seems to be that it’s solely because of their religious affiliation and not that they’ve done something wrong in the eyes of the secular world. When people of ANY religion claim to follow the words of their deity and then act against those words, they are deemed a hypocrite. Being a hypocrite is not solely relegated to describing the Christian religion. “Practice what you preach” is not designed to only refer to religion. The issue that most people have with Christianity is that this religion of love, tolerance, kindness, and service shows itself to be at the forefront of movements that hatefully cry out against loving one’s neighbor, healing the sick, feeding the poor, and tolerating others that don’t share those same beliefs.

Now, I realize that there are many many Christians and Christian organizations that do good for their fellow man, that reserve judgment to their God and their God alone, and that tolerate and respect other religions, yet those organizations get overshadowed by mega churches with six figure salary earning, Lear jet flying, philandering pastors who shout perversely paraphrased versions of God’s words on issues like same sex marriage, birth control, abortion, and politics. I believe that this war on Christianity that people reference is actually a war on hypocrisy and the religious manipulation of a secular government and good God fearing people are caught in the crossfire. So, praise whatever god you wish, and pass the ammunition.

About Post Author

Josh Fielder

Josh Fielder is from Central Virginia and when he's not driving his RV cross-country, writing short stories under the pen-name Hack Kerouac, or saving turtles, he writes articles designed to help sufferers of Cranial Rectal Inversion.
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6 years ago

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[…] There you will find 12416 more Infos: madmikesamerica.com/2015/08/the-separation-of-church-and-hate/ […]

Glenn Geist
8 years ago

Can I get a witness?

Of course it’s all the truth, the sad truth and nothing but the truth, but I think claiming persecution is a time honored tactic of scoundrels of all sorts. They do a good job of it and that Americans are so passionately ignorant and cognitively impaired is proof. Fortunately things like the Fox “war on Christmas” are flimsy remnants of the bloody, paranoid Christian tyranny of the last 1800 years or so, but keep fanning the embers and they do turn into flames.

8 years ago

Excellent Josh. Truly excellent.

Peter Everts
8 years ago

The founders were indeed wise men when it comes to religion(s). Unfortunately, it is apparent that many of those imbued with religious fervor can’t read (or, it could be cognitive).

Tall Stacey
8 years ago

Amen!!!

8 years ago

It’s a rare day I have the pleasure of reading such a worthy endeavor. The author is to be complimented for knowing the problem, exposing the problem, and suggesting examples of the hypocrisy that is religion.

Reply to  Lyndon Probus
8 years ago

I have to agree with you there Lyndon. Nice job Josh.

Josh Fielder
Reply to  Lyndon Probus
8 years ago

Thank you, Lyndon and Mad Mike.

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