My Reaction to CNN's God's Warriors - Christianity

To any Christians reading this blog: Do you feel comfortable letting any one of these different Christian denominations take over our government? What happens if the Catholics get the NE, the Methodists get the Midwest, the Baptists get the south, and the Episcopalians get the west? What side will you be on? How horrible is that war going to be? Don't be naive in thinking this won't happen. The Protestants and Catholics fought for years in Northern Ireland. There will be issues that start wars. If there is no war, how would you feel about having to move to the area where your religion is better represented? How do you feel about being put in jail for the thought crime of thinking a movie star or a member of the same sex is good looking or has a nice body? Or having the government censure a cool movie because of an obscure moral dilemma that the religious police feel we can't be exposed to? Who makes that decision? What if you feel the decision is unfair? How would you feel about going to prison for watching an illegal copy of said movie? How much time should a woman spent in prison for having an abortion? How about for an abortion after being savagely raped? Raped by her father? Gang raped? How much time should a doctor spend in prison for performing such an abortion? Which one of the 10 Commandments should be posted in classrooms and courthouses: the Catholic one or the Protestant one? Be careful not to offend the majority religion or you will go to prison. Just which Christian denomination provides the prayer in school? Should the Blessed Mother be included in these prayers, why or why not? Should we divide the Catholics and Protestants up for prayer and leave poor atheist Timmy in the hallway to be teased later? I have many, many more questions, but these should be enough to provoke some thought.

One of the biggest glaring problems I saw was the wealth associated with these Christian groups that are trying to interject their morality into our government. Didn't Jesus say....oh, never mind, I'm sure Christians feel it's irrelevant in this case. Where do you think this wealth comes from? Do any of you give to your church? How would you feel if you knew your money was being spent to force others to believe as you do? Why would you be OK with that? What if your religion wasn't the right one and you were being forced to adopt religious dogma you're uncomfortable with? Who makes that decision? You get the idea.

The power these people want is another glaring problem. As we all know power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. These people want absolute power over every little aspect of our lives. When Lord Acton said this in 1870 he was referring to Pope Pius IX and the dogma of papal infallibility. As much as you may not want to believe it being a Christian doesn't make one immune to such corruption. We don't have to look far in our immediate past to see the evidence of this statement.

What have we learned by watching this show? The religious don't have the cornerstone on morality and it's been proven time and again it can't be legislated. (Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920's as one example.) What is it that these people really want? It's simple: money and power, and tight control over me and you and our thoughts. Perhaps you'll be happy in such a world, but I suspect once it becomes clear what these people want under the guise of morality and family values you'll see a backlash like one that has never happened.

One thing I was disappointed about after watching this show was the lack of reaction from non-religious people. I really wanted to hear from the other side; the rational, secular humanist side that values the rights of each individual including the freedom of and from religion and right to privacy. Just from listening to what these religious leaders were saying about secularists we are hugely misunderstood. Not only are we misunderstood, but in some cases your religious leaders are lying to you about us. People like us include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, and many others. These people were not Christians and they were not atheists; they were great men with a vision of keeping government from influencing our churches and our churches from influencing our government. It goes both ways. This great vision is under attack and we need to stop powerful Christians from turning our government into a theocracy.