The Christian States Of America, Part III

Yesterday I wrote that the Europeans must be shaking their heads trying to figure out presidential campaign politics in America, which now, at least among Republicans, seems to be more like a contest about religion than about what the country needs in terms of leadership and change. Other commentators have noted that the Republican Party is now, after Bush-Rove an overtly Christian fundamentalist religious political party. Make no mistake about it: Republicans want change, but the change they want is to make America a Christian religious state. This directly contradicts the intent of the Founders, who were men of faith but realized that the new republic must be secular precisely because that is the only way to preserve liberty for all.

In today's New York Times., columnist Roger Cohen comments on Mitt Romney's religion speech:

Religion informed America’s birth. But its distancing from politics was
decisive to the republic’s success. Indeed, the devastating European experience
of religious war influenced the founders’ thinking. That is why I find Romney’s
speech and the society it reflects far more troubling than Europe’s vacant
cathedrals.
Romney allows no place in the United States for atheists. He
opines that, “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.” Yet
secular Sweden is free while religious Iran is not. Buddhism, among other great
Oriental religions, is forgotten.
He shows a Wikipedia-level appreciation of
other religions, admiring “the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims” and
“the ancient traditions of the Jews.” These vapid nostrums suggest his innermost
conviction of America’s true faith. A devout Christian vision emerges of a U.S.
society that is in fact increasingly diverse.
Romney rejects the “religion
of secularism,” of which Europe tends to be proud. But he should consider that
Washington is well worth a Mass. The fires of the Reformation that reduced St.
Andrews Cathedral to ruin are fires of faith that endure in different, but no
less explosive, forms. Jefferson’s “wall of separation” must be restored if
those who would destroy the West’s Enlightenment values are to be
defeated.

If the Republicans get their way, and a Huckabee or a Romney is elected president, we will have a cultist as president. If this happens, the United States will then be held hostage to a cult, the Christian cult. Alarm bells should be sounding in the minds of all Americans who treasure freedom. If this drift toward making the country a Christian cultist bastion is not stopped, we will lose the freedoms that made this country great. These Christian cultists must be stopped.

Jim