Notwithstanding that this blogger thinks that military intelligence — indicative of all US intelligence agencies — has brains in the seat of its pants in taking pictorial evidence in a digital world that was bound to leak out and thus invoke more chaos — such as the horrific beheading — in an already dangerous Iraq, the current commotion over the prison abuse is a legitimate concern not only that a handful of ignorant, poorly trained reservists were in the main responsible for its own inhumanity, but that it may well have been a systemic temperament generated from the administration’s creed of “either you’re for us or against us.” Another factor, most unfortunately, is the devastating national disposition that has festered in the consciousness of US citizens, crowding out the pure values of decency and democracy.

This cancer is religious freedom run amok. The evangelical movement is motivated by growing numbers — some forty-six percent of the population — many of whom support financially, often by pledging a percentage of wages, to the manifesto to infiltrate constitutional law and put in harm’s way the secular Constitution that for over two centuries has mutually protected the people from political and religious zealots. The venerable Constitution is now turned on its head and perceived as denying “We the people of the United States the right to change it to “We the people of a Christian State and its United Zealots.”

That this myopic vision is overrunning the nation at a time we are conducting a war against terrorism that proclaims to be doing Allah’s work is satire of which even Shakespeare never dreamed. For Bush to defer to God in his decision to go to war would have been conceived in the past as unconstitutional and divine vigilantism. During the Vietnam War when Johnson went to the Washington cathedral to pray — it works two ways — God would have prayed back for him to cease bombing and end what He perceived as war against a nation that honorably had taken back their land from the French and would have been united — godless communism, notwithstanding — had not Dulles, Eisenhower and Kennedy been unilateral busybodies. With Clinton, God would have reluctantly assented because of the displaced Muslims and then caution him: “On behalf of innocent Serbians, be error-free, or be held accountable, in your strategic air assault.” Had Bush honestly consulted the Almighty, He would have deferred him to his biological father who would have admonished him on the price of stabilization resulting in years of destabilization — and “read my lips — requiring no tax cuts!”

The Evangelist — the majority of whom range from liberal to conservative — have been gripped by Islamic-like submission to the political zeal of the Christian Right. This subversion, not surprisingly, relies more on the vindictive law of the Old Testament rather than the separatist dominance of the New. Subversion to be effective must be underpinned by wrath and militarism, not forgiveness and understanding:

Abortion is murder, regardless that the late fetus is hopelessly deformed or the mother at risk. Israel must be victorious not for the sake of democracy but for the return of Christ to hurl the world into perdition, à la “Left Behind” books. Gun laws defy the modern spirit of Armageddon . The Church has finally seen the evangelical light by denying pro-choice Catholics the sacrament. On the other hand, God can be modern by leading the parade in His SUV, like lemmings to the great chariot races at the Temple of NASCAR. Conscription is unnecessary for Christian Soldiers — an abundance of the uneducated and poor — who gladly go blindly on their Crusades to unleash Mel Gibson punishment on POWs. Single mothers are an abomination and must be denied daily bread until they accept the Christian teaching of Miraculous Abstention. Free school lunches are socialistic — let them go to friendly neighborhood Christian soup kitchens. The homeless should learn to pray, only then, will God house them. Poor health and poverty are biblical necessities for the meek to inherit the earth. Presidential candidates who don’t go to church, let alone openly pray are ruled unelectable. War heroes are no longer electable either because anyone with a medal must have been possessed by sinister political aspirations; nor can they be trusted to function as Secretary of State. True Christians are those you see on television waving the flag, palm as it were, when Bush steps down from Air Force 1 after communion with angels in Rice’s mushroom cloud. Labor unions are for losers who lack heavenly designed free-will and entrepreneurial guts. The broad label of “working class” is a pejorative for “ middle class,” which Christians dominate.

That eighty-one percent [2004 Pew Center poll] believe in prayer, judgment day and atonement does not, however, define the American spirit the founding fathers conceived — if a poll had been taken in 1776 it would have been even higher. The difference is in the power extended to those of the cloth to degrade the pulpit for political aims and thus cross the line of separation designed specifically for check and balance between theological and political bodies. When theology violates this balance on tax exempt domain it crosses the grain of this republic’s constitution and yet boldly mobilizes against Congress to check the undue balance since a vast constituency is deluded by submission to God’s will. Ironically the evangelical extremists will to secular power under the guise of a theological thrust amounts to fascistic domination by frenzy over such matters as science research that dares offend — stem-cell research, cloning, the pill. Moreover, these offenders of the cloth become self-styled state and fed agents by poking into the privacy of individual free will to gay marriage, gay ministries, parent planning, omissions of “under God” in the Pledge, silence in lieu of open prayer, sexual freedom, expression, and alternative beliefs. Seldom, if ever do these Christian ayatollahs mobilize in behalf of the oppressed.

This said, it is not too late for Americans to wake up to the moral foundation of democracy and put religion back in its private domain to guide the parishes by enlightened Christian practice for the faithful’s own individual edification, rather than impose values widespread. Morality is not a religious monopoly; it is rather both a rational and empirical approach to behavior that can only be achieved through open education that leads to individual understanding of and sensitivity to the profound diversity in the world.

              Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: May 12, 2004.