h/t: Being Liberal
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: “Your Religion Doesn’t Get to Make Laws in This Country!”
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Category Archives: Separation of Church and State
AUDIO DISCUSSION: “Chris Hedges and Robert Scheer (Editor of Truthdig) Discuss American Fascism”
The two celebrated journalists discuss the collapse of vital institutions and the rise of demagogues and charlatans in post-meltdown America.
h/t: Truthdig
CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM: “The Far-Right Christian Movement Driving the Debt Default” / Deborah Caldwell
If the U.S. breaches its debt ceiling this week, bringing with it the global financial panic economists predict, leaders of a little-known far-right movement called Christian Reconstructionism can claim partial responsibility. Their goal: to eradicate the U.S. government so that a theocratic Christian nation emerges to enforce biblical laws.
That’s right — laws out of the Book of Leviticus prohibiting adultery, homosexuality, and abortion, with penalties including death by stoning.
The key leader of this movement is Gary North, founder of the Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas. He’s a long-time associate of Ron Paul, intellectual godfather of the Tea Party movement — the very people responsible for Congressional deadlock over the government shutdown and debt ceiling debate.
CHRISTIAN THEOCRACY: “The Radical Christian Right and the War on Government” / Chris Hedges
There is a desire felt by tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, to destroy the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment, radically diminish the role of government to create a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and force a recalcitrant world to bend to the will of an imperial and “Christian” America. Its public face is on display in the House of Representatives. This ideology, which is the driving force behind the shutdown of the government, calls for the eradication of social “deviants,” beginning with gay men and lesbians, whose sexual orientation, those in the movement say, is a curse and an illness, contaminating the American family and the country. Once these “deviants” are removed, other “deviants,” including Muslims, liberals, feminists, intellectuals, left-wing activists, undocumented workers, poor African-Americans and those dismissed as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace this peculiar interpretation of the Bible—will also be ruthlessly repressed. The “deviant” government bureaucrats, the “deviant” media, the “deviant” schools and the “deviant” churches, all agents of Satan, will be crushed or radically reformed. The rights of these “deviants” will be annulled. “Christian values” and “family values” will, in the new state, be propagated by all institutions. Education and social welfare will be handed over to the church. Facts and self-criticism will be replaced with relentless indoctrination.
[…]
The cult of masculinity, as in all fascist movements, pervades the ideology of the Christian right. The movement uses religion to sanctify military and heroic “virtues,” glorify blind obedience and order over reason and conscience, and pander to the euphoria of collective emotions.
[…]
All ideological, theological and political debates with the radical Christian right are useless. It cares nothing for rational thought and discussion.
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Fascist movements begin as champions of civic improvement, communal ideals, moral purity, strength, national greatness and family values.
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The rise of Christian fascism is aided by our complacency.
CHRISTIANS AND WINGNUTS: “God, Guns and Xenophobia”
h/t: Being Liberal
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: “Intentionally Secular Constitution”
IRRATIONALITY: “Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking.” / Bill Maher
h/t: Atheism 411
SECULARISM: “God’s Rape-babies”
h/t: Being Liberal
RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGE: “Persecution Or Privilege? The Real Status Of American Houses of Worship” / Americans United for Separation of Church and State
The war on Christmas. The war on marriage. Wars on schools, on prayer, on the sanctity of life – we’ve heard countless times that a culture war rages in America. If you believe the fundamentalists, they’re merely defending themselves against an overwhelming tide of secularist persecution.
But a recent report by the Council for Secular Humanism and the University of Tampa confirms that this persecution is really a myth. In fact, the report estimates that the federal government subsidizes churches to the tune of at least $71 billion per year.
The Washington Post called these numbers a “lowball,” and estimates the real number is probably much higher thanks to local tax subsidies, sales tax subsidies and fund-raising subsidies, among other benefits. When these benefits are considered the number is closer to $82.5 billion per year.
Related articles
- You give religions more than $82.5 billion a year (washingtonpost.com)
- This Week in God (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: “Freedom From Religion Foundation Objects to Religious Quotations on U.S. Passports”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the U.S. State Department on July 25 to object to religious quotations printed on official United States passports. FFRF has been protesting religion in passports since 2007.
FFRF, a state/church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., is a national nonprofit with more than 19,000 members across the country.
Multiple quotes on the United States passport include religious references:
“May God continue the unity of our country as the railroad unites the two great ocean of the world.” Inscribed on the Golden Spike
“That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” Jefferson Memorial, Thomas Jefferson
“We have a great dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Always Question Authority 