Of course the paper this morning contained the usual happy crap about celebrating FREEDOM as though we had either more of it or a better kind than Canada or most of Europe who have embraced the principles of Democracy and the rights of Man we seem to reject every Sunday as we yearn for the Divine right of Government. What the day is about is political independence and independence from a government that denied us the right to Parliamentary representation it was legally obligated to provide while requiring us to identify the King's right to be king with a state church. It was about our right to fair representation as citizens, as equal participants in government regardless of wealth and importance and heredity and not about a tea tax.
As you watch the sound and fury of the fireworks, remember that the people selling themselves as patriots, the people talking about freedom in saccharine tones, really mean control by a powerful aristocracy allied with a narrow, sectarian interpretation of a certain religion.
"Blessed is the nation whose god is the Lord" begins the full page full color newspaper insert payed for by the Hobby Lobby. It leaves off the next stanza: "the people he chose for his inheritance" which of course in that context means the Jews. It also mistranslates אשר־יהוה, asher-Yaveh as the lord so those who think 'Jesus is Lord' will think it means them. The arrogance and the dishonesty would be amusing if the intent were not so insidious, because Our friends at Hobby Lobby, glowing like the face of Moses in their victory over secular law, have asserted their commitment to and aspiration toward a government Dei Gratia. They assert their version of the Bible as the best source of normative morality.
The flag-bedecked page is packed with references to Supreme Court decisions from the 1830's supporting the public schools as the place to pray and teach Christianity and out-of-context quotes from the very anti-religious founding fathers like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson about the Christian Bible being the basis of all true morality. (No mention of course of the Bible backed, God tolerated institutions of wife beating and slavery and rape and genocide and banishment of non-Jewish people from holy land.)
No religion is about freedom, they are all about orthodoxy and uniformity of belief to the exclusion of other ideas and practices. Freedom of worship is not freedom to enforce religious orthodoxy or religious law on others. No religion is about free choice, Democracy or the inherent rights of man. No one in America has claimed the right to dictate your thoughts about divinity but religious organizations. Your prayers, your right to congregate and worship are guaranteed against the influence of the Hobby Lobby and our constitution forbids our government to do what they insist is the right thing to do: Establish and enforce some form of Christian doctrine as the law of the land. If this be freedom, then freedom is slavery and the American Revolution against a divinely inspired Christian king we pretend to celebrate today was not only fought in vain, but was blasphemy and an unholy act.
I am always so dismayed at how far others will go to twist, deny and overuse supposed snippets uttered by our founding fathers. If they wanted to be truly patriotic they would study extensively writings by ALL those irreverent rebels who had the audacity to claim their own nation and blow raspberries at the King of England. They all took an insane chance doing what they did and they deserve to be heard in their entirety. Thanks Cap't for putting this day in proper perspective.
ReplyDelete... the very anti-religious founding fathers like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson...
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm wrong Captain but my understanding of these two gentlemen is that they were not so much anti religious as they were vehemently against religion having any part of, or any influence in our secular government. That being said, a very excellent post!
May you enjoy and celebrate this 4th of July in the true spirit of our revolution, the patriotic men who fomented and led it, the patriots who fought it, and the women who sacrificed for it. There is still hope if enough of us stand for the founding principles.
Looks like an afternoon of severe T-Storms today, but at least someone else got the hurricane!
DeleteBut I think you're right -- the anger was not with the concept of God at all, but was against religious institutions. I believe Jefferson wrote in his "Bible" that the Christian fathers had murdered Jesus' teachings and perverted them. Madison wrote about the history of persecution and slaughter perpetrated by Christian institutions and governments but these folks were Deists, not atheists or Christians in the sense that the religious right of today would have us believe.
I truly believe that such demand for a bible based theocratic government is a direct betrayal of our revolution and it disgusts me to see the flag attached to such rhetoric,.
They pick and choose what they want from the O.T. and they pick and choose what they want from the Founding Fathers' writings, all in service to their orthodoxy, which they mistakenly and tragically believe is,as you state, the "normative morality." I still maintain this is the last gasp of a dying ethos. The younger generations are less religious than were the current members of the inaptly named "moral majority." That's the majority that believes enriching the already flag-wrapped fabulously rich is moral, while the desperately poor get less and less of Mom's Apple Pie.
ReplyDeleteI'n trying to think of any religion that doesn't do the same thing -- cafeteria style religion. The only difference is that in a real cafeteria, you get to choose freely. These thugs want to make you eat the Brussels sprouts and beets and leave the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the thing is to make up your own and refine it as your understanding changes. I think if there is a God he/she/it would approve the effort more than blind adherence to what the guy inthe funny clothes says.
In fact, now that you don't have to obey the law if it interferes with your "belief" I'm hard at work doing just that.
More about Velocitarianism in due course..
When given the choice of true spirituality or religous dogmatism the wise chose the former every time.
ReplyDelete