There is a quote that states, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” that is really a condensed version of several prognostications warning 1930-s Germany that Adolf Hitler was rising to the level of dictator and with his ascendance came their loss of freedoms. America is falling victim to the same kind of fascism despite the Constitution’s guarantee that every citizen is equal that is facing a greater threat than any time in the nation’s history. When America finally falls to fascism, and it is quickly approaching, it will be in part due to a well-planned assault on liberty by a group that announced a decade ago their coup d’état would be bloodless, but certainly not without pain and not without a concerted effort to replace the Constitution with a religious text; the Christian bible.
Extremist Christians are adamant the First Amendment protects their religious freedom to impose compliance with their religious beliefs on all Americans, while at the same time forbidding government from protecting Americans from state-imposed religious tyranny. They claim, errantly, that the establishment clause does not imply Separation of Church and State, but according to Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Danbury Baptists, he assured them the 1st Amendment protected them from other religions imposing their beliefs on the Baptists by government fiat. Jefferson wrote that, “the act of the whole American people which declared that their government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” Still, evangelicals are imposing and attempting to enforce “law respecting an establishment of religion” as well as actively “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” of other Americans who do not subscribe to the Christian bible as the law of the land.
It is important, no critical, that every American understands that a theocracy is the greatest form of tyranny founded on destroying liberty, and for Americans it begins by suspending the Constitution and replacing it with religious edicts. One of the beautiful features of our Constitution was that it used to guarantee freedoms that all Americans were required to comply with, but over the years politicians granted religious groups power to dictate to the nation which aspects of the Constitution they will comply with, and which parts of the Christian bible they will impose on the population. It is a harsh enough reality to learn the Constitution does not protect all Americans’ freedoms, and supremely disheartening that despite the Founding Fathers’ intent to protect the people from theocratic tyranny, evangelical Christians are imposing theocratic fascism on the people while “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
On New Years’ eve the Supreme Court took another step towards replacing the U.S. Constitution with the Christian bible when it exempted groups affiliated with the Catholic religion from complying with the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The groups, none of them churches, complained the mandate violated their religious freedom to withhold prescriptions from their employees despite it was no financial burden on the organizations. Their contention is that Catholic organizations were being forced to “abandon their religious convictions and facilitate access to contraceptives, sterilization, and related education and counseling for their employees.” The mandate does not force leaders of the Catholic organizations, or their employees, to use contraception, or be sterilized, or accept family planning counseling; it left that choice up to each individual according to the Constitution. Catholic organizations demanding exemption from the mandate see it as restricting their biblical right to impose their religion on their employees and the High Court agreed. It is another step towards governance by theocratic tyranny and what better way than eliminating Constitutional protections of the 1st and 14th Amendments.
The Supreme Court is likely not done facilitating theocratic tyranny or disabusing the people from their 1st and 14th Amendment rights if Utah Mormons have their way. On the eve of New Years’ day, Utah Mormons demanded the High Court put an instantaneous halt to same-sex marriages in the state and complained vehemently that a federal district and 10th Circuit Appeals court had the temerity to use the U.S. Constitution to grant equal rights and due process under the law to same-sex couples. The Mormon governor and attorney general argued in their legal brief that “This case involves not just a refusal by the federal government to accommodate a state’s (biblical) definition of marriage, but it wielded a federal injunction under the banner of the federal Constitution.” Could it possibly be any clearer that Utah Mormons, like Catholic organizations, Personhood Movements, National Organization of Marriage, and various Christian groups abrogate any adherence to the Constitution where it contradicts religious edicts? Complaining the courts are making rulings based on the Constitution and not the bible is as blatant an affront to freedom and the nation’s founding document as forcing all Americans to comply with biblical “laws respecting an establishment of religion” the 1st Amendment forbids. But that is the price Americans pay for allowing theocrats to shred the Constitution and impose biblical law.
It is no secret why religious groups are comfortable abridging other Americans’ rights and violating the Constitution with such aplomb and self-righteous indignation that they clearly despise the Founding Fathers’ for attempting to protect Americans from religious tyranny. Clearly, it is the political practice of giving Christians and their bible greater importance than the Constitution; a practice initiated by conservatives’ man-god Ronald Reagan. Although the practice includes politicians on both sides of the aisle, Republicans are the de facto legislative arm of evangelical Christians with their greatest efficacy coming in Republican-controlled states; particularly across the South and Midwest. Nationally, politicians have forced Americans to give over $82.5 billion annually to churches they use to force compliance with their religion and dismantle the Constitution that was always part of Dominionists’ plan to rule by theocracy and edicts founded in the Christian bible.
Americans should be quaking in their shoes at the prospect of what lies ahead when America is ruled by a theocracy. That religious groups are using the 1st Amendment to force compliance to laws respecting an establishment of religion, and complaining courts are issuing rulings according to the U.S. Constitution, particularly the 14th Amendment, informs it is just a matter of time before they join Republicans and teabaggers calling revising those parts of the Constitution that contradict their religious beliefs. If there is any doubt what they will replace them with just peruse the Utah law’s biblical definition of marriage as law of the land, or consider Catholics and evangelicals citing the 1st Amendment as legal cover to impose biblical law on the population to understand that their only goal is tyranny by theocracy; the same kind of government the Supreme Islamic Council rules over its people in Iran.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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