My reply to:Personal Faith and Politics

Bill Moyers Journal

A an American Neo-Pagan I find myself on both sides of this argument. On one hand, I do believe in a deity, though I call Her Goddess and am unaffiliated to the "god" of Abraham that is the center of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic sects. Atheists, on the other hand, want to condemn my religion along with the Abrahamic patriarchies, though nothing in my religion creates the problems they normally ascribe to "religion." The Abrahamists designed their religion to denigrate mine, so I don't have many friends in that camp either. This gives me a unique perspective on the necessity of a wall of separation between Church and State.

Our Constitution is a remarkable document. It creates a social contract in which we all agree to act as if we come from an even playing field with no favor or advantage to any group over another. No matter what belief we hold privately, we agree to come together in recognition that merely being human endows each individual with a set of rights delineated therein, as well as any rights not specified but still reserved to the people. As Americans we agree to separate our public action from our personal belief. Our democracy demands the objective application of the principles in the Constitution, and those are far less ambiguous than our conservative friends would have us believe. My morality will obviously dictate my behavior, but I have agreed not to impose that behavior on those who choose otherwise. As an American, I have a right to oppose any move to restrict my expression of faith or to penalize me for it. I hate what Falwell and Dobson represent, but I respect their right to take take those positions in their private lives or their churches, but they don't have a right to bring it into the public discourse. They are in violation of our social contract when they try to institutionalize their bigotry. Most of the positions advocated by the Religious Right have little or nothing to do with Christian scripture, but the people who follow them know too little of scripture or American History to understand how dangerous it is to bring religion into government. Hitler used Christianity to manipulate the masses, too, and everything he did was technically legal because his group had exploited the fear of the Germans to put through new "laws" that gave them unlimited authority, the same way Bush exploited 9/11 to push through the "Patriot Act" in spite of its complete corruption of Constitutional guarantees.

I have a right to habeas corpus endowed by nature and only named in the Constitution. The Constitution didn't create my rights it only described them, and the Patriot Act cannot presume to suspend it. The fact that everyone in Congress doesn't seem to know that or act accordingly frightens me. That the people who are supposed to enforce our laws commit those violations is horrifying.

The fact that Christians, the most favored group on the planet for the last 2000 years, are crying persecution is a sick joke. It isn't persecution to take away an unfair advantage they should never have been given - it's justice. The idea that so many Americans don't know that their revisionist history is a carefully constructed lie is pathetic. I want to know why schools who teach demonstrably false information are accredited to issue diplomas and law degrees. Any politician or member of the military that places loyalty or zealotry before their allegiance to the Constitution has violated their oath of office and should be instantly removed from their position.

Churches should not discuss political issues, not should they advocate for particular laws or elections. If they do, let them pay taxes. The irony is that their political participation is idolatry, just as the 10 Commandments they want to display everywhere are graven images. If they actually observed and understood their own scripture, we wouldn't be having these problems. People are reacting emotionally because they haven't learned critical thinking skills.

Pray to whomever you want, or don't, but don't expect me to listen to or participate in those prayers, let alone subsidize or enact them into law. If I were in the majority, would you want to be subject to my prayers? Of course, I wouldn't expect you to because we all have the same rights. That's what it means to be an American.