Religion: We Are Either A Secular State Or We Are Not
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Brazil is constitutionally a secular state but there, as here, the truth is slippery. Insulting religion or religious people can have consequences even if blasphemy isn’t strictly illegal and we have a history of treating professions of “faith” as a get around the law free card and also exemption from the obligations of all sorts our system imposes.
“No soup for you, heathen!”
Mo wedding cake or flowers either.
I remember when New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to close the Brooklyn Museum because a painting with a religious theme by an African artist offended him. He did succeed in closing the subway station to dissuade visitors. “It’s blasphemy!” he protested as though we were back in the 17th century when America was great and witches were hanged and before we had a constitution to protect us from this age-old horror.
Meanwhile back in primarily Catholic and very religious Brazil, a passionate petition is being filed against a comedy group who has produced a Netflix special Christmas film entitled “The First Temptation of Christ,” featuring a gay Jesus bringing his boyfriend home to meet Mary and Joseph. Oh My God. Although the debate about a scene in early versions of Mark being suggestive goes back to the 4th century, most Sunday School Christians are free of such things.
Faith requires unanimous certainty. And then there are the delicate divine sensitivities. Words have power too even if you’re all-powerful, so we have to shield our gods from investigation and yes, they are above the law just like American Presidents and at many times, they are the law even if it’s only hearsay.
And if you still insist this is petty or irrelevant, be reminded that if no one expects the Spanish Inquisition, the Brazilian Inquisition is going on, and as you read this an evangelical, neo-Pentecostal Christian group called “Soldiers of Jesus” is taking over large swaths of Brazil, threatening religious minorities and heretics with death if they don’t convert. The hell doesn’t repeat itself.
Do our younger and passionately sensitive Americans have the right idea to soothe the savage faith? Offer Safe Spaces for Gods and their families – places where no questions may intrude. No insults, no alternative interpretations and certainly, and above all, no humor. And of course, we’ve always had them: churches, convents, and monasteries. We even support them with tax exemptions, which to my way of thinking obligates them to keep this nonsense behind closed doors and out of our courts, schools, homes, and places of business.
We are either a secular state – a requirement of religious freedom – or we are not. There is no ambiguity in judging what condition we are in and who spends enormous amounts of money advocating for a government based on Christianity; pretending that the word describes an unambiguous and cohesive entity. Both freedoms of speech and freedom of religion and perhaps freedom of the press requires that our laws and our courts and our legislature do not take any religious demands, definitions, descriptions or objections into consideration – and so should it ever be. So sayeth the law, amen
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It’s not just Brazil either, because this whole GOD wave is rolling across Europe as well, and here in the US, thanks to SKUNK. Should scare folk it should.
Very good article and right in point. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us.
Religion has been called opium of the masses by I think Karl Marx. You know, the 4th and never claimed Marx brother. Religion was invented about the time that man was to explain things like thunder, lightening,, earth quakes, and floods. and to give jobs to shysters who wanted to stand up and pretend they knew some things. Although, I must admit not one has yet explain, satisfactorily, who the hell the people in the land of Nod were and where from they came. It does make me wonder about the ancient astronaut theorists,
I once visited the Land of Nod, and it’s quite the place. It was also the only time I experimented with LSD.
Say what? For me it was Hamilton, NY, but wasn’t eretz nod the place Cain was banished to? I doubt Hamilton County was East of Eden, but at the time it could have been anywhere. I’m so confused.
France is a secular state. Their government goes about its business without mentioning the name of Jesus, or any other manufactured deity, beyond saying the occasional “god-damn it” or “Jesus Christ.” I believe it was Voltaire who said: “Religion was born when the first scoundrel met the first fool.” As to Brazil, Catholicism, long known to be a cruel and brutal religion, rules the land, and it’s likely to win this battle.
Why the resurgence of religiosity when you’d think most people are happy with the new degree of freedom and the material improvements to life that secularization has brought in the last few centuries. It’s beyond me. Of course ecclesiastical power seems to have migrated to gangs and private businesses and yes, gangs. When I was still going to local motorcycle rallies I noticed an apparently large group all decked out in leather and patches calling themselves “The Army of God” It is intimidating and I’m sure it’s on purpose. One of my hobbies is the study of mythology and religion and I’ve long since decided that all our major religions are pious frauds using stories and characters and literary devices from other and older religions. It’s all fake news and none of it has ever benefited anyone with the exception of secular power. The rise or recrudescence if you prefer of god based power and law and justice where neolithic mythology and government are enforced is as scary as the collapse of modernity it causes. As with Fascism, which it co closely resembles modern communications has become the breeding ground for madness at the expense of reason.
I give a lot of voltage to Voltaire for that one.