“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -- ascribed to traditional conservative Republican, Barry Goldwater, probably sometime in the 1960s
A commenter here recently made these comments regarding Catholic church dogma and teaching:
But [the fact that many Catholics who have abortions, affairs, lie, cheat, or steal defy church indoctrination] does not alter what the Church claims: that no one has the moral agency of conscience and every civil authority, including that of elected governments, is --in all matters concerning morals-- subservient to its claimed spiritual authority.
And that means that, in the Church's view, its word constitutes a higher law. And, because of this, it claims also that people have no right to make laws affecting morals without the Church being in agreement ... which means that everyone is ultimately subject to them rather than the civil authority conferred by self-government in a free and democratic society.
That is what Christian Nationalists want by establishing their theocracy over democracy, and that is why the majority SCOTUS has sided with these Christian Nationalists, for they learned as children that God's law (as interpreted by the Church) was above all human laws, including those which protect and preserve the liberty of all in civil society.
That raised an important but obscure to most (~95% ?) point that puzzled me for years until I figured it out ~10 years ago. By injecting morality into an expanded range of political issues, the Christian nationalist (CN) movement was effectively expanding the scope of issues it could demand in the name of God to have veto power over. By doing that, the CN movement was expanding its claim to sacred power over secular government.[1]
Radical right and CN politicians, religious leaders and elites have worked for decades to inject morals into as many political issues as possible. They have done this knowingly and persistently, but at the same time as quietly and opaquely as they could.
To be clear, consciously injecting morals into political issues is an intentional and knowing effort to expand the scope of religious power in the CN's relentless quest to bury secular government and society and replace them with an aggressive, non-compromising, intolerant, bigoted fundamentalist Christian government and society.
That is what Barry Goldwater was worried about long ago. He directly experienced the attack of religion on secularism and natural social change. He saw its non-compromising aggression and attacks against secular society, civil liberties and government. The CN movement is hell-bent on literally reversing social change and the expanded civil liberties that have come with it and replacing that with a biblical worldview nation where God has the ultimate power in government, commerce and society.
In my opinion, the CN political power movement is fairly close to getting what it wants. Maybe stopping the movement is already impossible or nearly so. The outcomes of the next two elections should shed enough light to draw conclusions about just how close we are to losing our democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties to the rule of God and greedy CN religious elites and groups.
Questions:
1. Has Goldwater's fear that the preachers could control the Republican Party come to pass?
2. What about some Democrats in congress who have to kiss the Pope's ring, e.g., some American Catholic Bishops want to block Biden from receiving communion, which would amount to ex communicating him?
3. Based on a (true) belief that money equals power in our pay-to-play two-party system, is it time to revoke all tax privileges for all religious groups, or is it too late because the CN movement already has access to so much tax money that it cannot be stopped, in other words, are we already hosed?
Footnote:
1. One of the triggers that led to my epiphany that injecting morality into politics was a big part of why politics had IMO become so polarized, divisive, socially damaging and incoherent came from the end stages of the fight over Obamacare. My recollection is that in order to pass Obamacare, some Democratic Catholics in congress demanded buy-in by Catholic Bishops. Without the Bishops' consent, Obamacare could not have been passed. What the Bishops demanded and got was guarantees that limited access to abortions and birth control.
I recall being outraged and bewildered. In the months after that, it slowly dawned that religion was much more powerful and influential in secular government than I understood, and that I believed was legal without loss of tax breaks for the participating religious groups. As far as I know, no church lost its precious tax break privileges, although they should have. Apparently, federal laws that give the generous tax break privileges do not prohibit a demand of consent by Catholic Bishops to pass federal health care laws or probably any other kind of federal, state, county, city or local law. CN uses those tax dollar subsidies help finance relentless attacks on secular society, secular government, civil liberties, truth and democracy itself In the eyes of the CN movement, as long as morals can be injected, the law is subordinate to God, not the US Constitution or the will of the majority. CN is a tyranny of the minority political movement.
To be clear, tax breaks for direct participation in politics by any bigoted, mendacious religious organization is a privilege, not any constitutional right. Through its control of the Supreme Court, the CN movement is trying to lay a legal foundation to change that and elevate its fat place at the tax trough to a constitutional right by any sleight of hand that will suffice to create a needed fig leaf.
Government is about more than just abortion, gay marriage
and birth control, but they are a great place to start!!
That's confined just to the Medieval Church?
Didn't know the Church had pay-to-play and campaign contributions back then
Questionable morals, illegitimate children?? Nah, not possible, fake news!
