-E. B. White

A new poll from the First Amendment Center reveals that I may have misunderestimated the American people. They are far more ignorant than I had believed, and most of them see no need to go to the trouble of seeking truth when PR and rumors fit effortlessly into that same space in their consciousness. The majority of Americans (55%) believe that the Constitution established a Christian nation, and even more (65%) believe that the founding fathers intended the United States to be such.

This is disturbing on several levels. First of all (and least obviously), it means that at least 10% of Americans believe that the founding fathers were too stupid or incompetent to actually get their intentions down on paper. This tremendous insult to the memories of the great men who gave birth to the grand experiment that is the United States saddens me. More clearly, these results highlight both the success of the religious right’s marketing machine and the failure of the American educational system. I don’t know about any of you, but thinking back, I was never required to actually read the Constitution in school. We learned about what it says, but I suppose the four page document was deemed too hard. After all, so many of our elementary school children can barely read a comic book, much less an 18th century legal document.

Now, I was not so naive as to assume that all Americans understood the secular nature of our founding document, but I honestly didn’t expect the informed to be a minority. In a democracy, majority is truth, so welcome to the Christian States of America, heathens.

On a subject only tangentially related to the topic of this blog, the survey also indicates some unsettling trends in the public’s thoughts on the freedoms granted to us in the Bill of Rights. 74% of people want to prevent public school students from wearing T-shirts with slogans that might offend someone, and 42% don’t feel that musicians should be allowed to sing songs with potentially offensive lyrics. 34% believe that the press has “too much freedom,” and 40% think that the government should be able to require broadcasters to report a certain amount of “positive news” as a prerequisite for being allowed to use public airwaves. A quarter of Americans even believe that the first amendment “goes too far in the rights it guarantees.” Of course, they can’t even name those rights. Of the five freedoms granted by the first amendment, speech was the only one that could be named by the majority of respondents (64%). Only 19% were able to name freedom of religion, but since only 56% believe that freedom extends to all religious groups, I guess it doesn’t make much difference.

I recommend not just reading the article, but perusing the actual survey tables. Look ignorance and authoritarianism in the eye. And don’t blink.

~I AM~

The FindLaw piece starts out this way:

If more Americans would read works like Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, the longevity of our democracy, as we know it, would be more assured. I say this because the more people who understand the thinking and agenda of the growing forces of “Christian nationalism,” the less likely it will be that these forces will succeed. Not many people want to go where Christian nationalists want to take the country.

The last 6 or 8 years have already shown us what we can expect from a Christian nationalist government; holy crusades fought at the expense of the tax payers, the suppression of scientific and medical research in the name of perceived biblical doctrine, and the steady dismantling of individual rights. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for what the Christian nationalists (CN) really want.

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.

- The Changing of the Guard: Biblical Principles for Political Action by George Grant

This is the type of religious imposition that we need to guard against most stringently. Sure, being subjected to “in God we trust”, “under God”, or the Ten Commandments is annoying, but all that pales in comparison to what this country will be like if the CN succeeds in their quest for “dominion”.

How do they intend to do it? The strategy has already begun. They are systematically breeding, training, deploying, and installing judges into the US legal system in an attempt to adjudicate the conversion of our country from quasi secularism to full blown theocracy. Again, from the FindLaw piece:

Reconstructionist leaders see federal judges — probably correctly, Goldberg notes — “as the only thing protecting American secularism. They know that if they can take the courts, they’ll have the country.” Their strategy to take the courts is twofold, although, as Goldberg notes, it’s also “somewhat contradictory” — and it envisions a protracted battle.First, Christian nationalists plan to pressure politicians “to pack the bench with their ideological allies,” and they are “training a new generation of home schooled jurists who will approach the law with a Christian worldview.” [...]

Second, accompanying the attempt at court-packing, Goldberg reports that Christian nationalists are “trying to strip the courts of much of their current authority” while “railing against judges who override the popular will.” Or as Goldberg nicely summarizes Christian nationalists’ strategy, they “are simultaneously fighting a war for the judiciary and a war on it.”

Goldberg cites two right-wing judges nominated by President Bush as the kind who would satisfy the court packing plans of the Christian nationalists. Both judges — William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown — initially provoked Democratic filibusters. Unfortunately, my quick search of the debate in the Senate on these two highly controversial nominees does not reveal that anyone in the Senate opposing these nominees was aware that behind them, lurked the hand of the Christian nationalists.

The CN is a small segment of our society, but they are very well funded. Millions of saps pouring money into the coffers of Pat Robertson and company, all in the name of “gifts to God”, generates allot of cash. I am certain that most of those people assume their money is going to feed little Misha or Alina or to help convert Godless “Moslems” in Indonesia. If they really understood that their money was also being used to fund a covert takeover of the American government, I wonder how many of them would still be so generous. The CN are well organized and hold regular meetings. No they don’t meet under the club name “Christian Nationalists”, but they all meet up every Sunday and receive their marching orders. They also control large segments of the media, many many blogs, have a plethora of radio shows, and several TV shows.

I have often thought that atheists need to get their own TV shows. It would be particularly good if it could come on right after the 700 Club. To be acceptable, it would have to have a title that’s more palatable to the general public, so the Angry Atheist Hour, or Religion Sucks!, though accurate, would probably not go over very well in our current society.

The CN is why I started blogging, and why I vote, and I encourage other atheists to do so as well. Atheists should never allow themselves to give in to feelings of apathy or inevitability. Every atheist should be a constructive, active, voice in their local community. There are quite a few atheists that prescribe to the notion that government itself is illegitimate and invasion of personal rights. Whether that is true or not, I will not try and argue in this post. However, I can say with complete confidence, that if we adopt and maintain an abstinence approach to government, the Christian Nationalists will step in and take over.

LBBP 

I’ve been in Colorado for less than two weeks now, but I can already tell you that living here will provide me with good blogging material for a long, long time. I knew there would be a big difference from New York, but I wasn’t quite prepared. There are no fewer than 7 Christian radio stations in the Denver area. Where I am (30-45 minutes from Denver), you can’t spit without hitting a church. I haven’t changed my license plates yet, but the evidence I’ve seen indicates that I will be issued my choice of a Jesus fish, God Bless America magnet or Bush / Cheney bumper sticker with my Colorado tags. Hell, god even shows up in the state seal. Ah, there is much work for me to do here.

I’ve actually already found a point of accord with some of the locals. I was in a gun shop the other day, buying a shotgun. While they were on hold with “our government” waiting to find out if I’m a homicidal maniac, we got to talking. They have a little 9/11 memorial on the counter, and we started discussing Islam. Now, I don’t want to start calling names, but these gentlemen were… shall we say… a bit more rubicund in the nape region than am I. Despite that, they have completely swallowed the PC crap constantly pumped out by the administration and all of the cable news channels for the last four years that Islam is a peaceful religion. I told them they should read the Qur’an for the real story. Anyhow, I wound up stating my position that religion should be taught in all public and private schools. They wholeheartedly agreed. I considered explaining my position further, but decided that a gun shop owned by evangelical Christians is not the ideal place to make a stand. Never argue religion with an armed adversary. If more people accepted that simple rule of thumb, I’d finally be able to go on that trip I’ve always wanted to take to Israel.

So, that’s just a little taste of my new world. I may revisit some of these topics in more developed posts, but there are plenty of others I want to tackle, as well. Stay tuned.

For those of you who got hooked early on, you’ll be happy to know that Calendar of Credulity will return. I don’t know if I’ll do it this Sunday, but I will certainly restart it by next weekend.

~I AM~

George W. Bush
September 16, 2001

Some of George Bush’s biggest gaffes happen when he accidentally says what he means. In the quote above, he used the word “crusade” to describe his newly minted war on terror, just days after the attacks of 9/11. This word stirs up a thousand years worth of animosity in the Muslim world like few others can, and he later expressed his regret at its use. He has spent the 4 1/2 years since talking about how we are not at war with Islam, and how it is a peaceful faith. It may not have been politically expedient to say it, but he was right the first time. The so-called “War on Terror” (which is an absurd idea as stated) IS a war with Islam. To George W. Bush, it’s a war between Islam and Christianity. What it should be is a war between Islam and secular modernity.

Unless we take action, we will lose this war. By “we,” I don’t mean the United States. I mean American atheists.

In one possible outcome, the Muslims prevail. If Muslim fundamentalism succeeds in breaking the spirit and then breaking the back of the United States, the world will become Muslim. I don’t mean to imply that this will happen in five years or fifty years, but it will happen eventually because Islam will never stop fighting. A person who reads and believes the Qur’an and Hadith has no choice but to spread Islam to the four corners of the Earth at the tip of a sword. It’s simply part of the DNA of the religion, as it were. I have written about this before, so I won’t get into quoting passages here.

Another possible outcome is that the west prevails. The United States that comes out of that victory will look quite unlike the nation that was attacked in 2001. The struggle against Islam is largely responsible for the resurgence of religious fervor and Christian fundamentalism in the last few years. Heartland evangelicals can be totally certain that god is involved and playing favorites in a war against Islam. They feel a calling that hasn’t been felt by such a large group of Christians since the 13th century… the call of crusade. And so, as churches multiply and grow to unprecedented sizes, and the Supreme Court looks more and more like Vatican II, the country is slipping closer to the edge. In a country of 300 million with 250 million Christian, the threat of theocracy (overt or covert) is real.

So if either result leaves the United States in the grip of religious madness at some undetermined point in the future, what hope is there? Given a choice between living under “modern” Islam or a violent, xenophobic and willfully ignorant Christianity resembling that of Europe in the dark ages, the choice makes little practical difference. Luckily, there is a third choice.

While Crusader and Saracen drench the sand in each other’s blood in this modern holy war, other forces are at work. There are those of us, though few in number, who are focused on the root of the problem. This should not be a war against a tactic or a belief system. As we have seen throughout history, no one ultimately wins that type of war. It is up to us, the evangelical atheists of the world, to make this a war against a way of thinking. It is our task to ensure that this clash of civilizations is remembered by history as the last great war of religion. We must wage our battle on the field of ideas under the banner of reason. If the United States that wins this war is one that has been ideologically transformed by our efforts, the future of our planet is bright.

The key to this victory is the children. While there is no doubt in my mind that democracy is the best system of government yet developed, it is not perfect. It only works properly if the majority is right. We disciples of reason suffer the tyranny of the majority. It is the same reason any attempt to democratize the Middle East in its current state will ultimately fail. Under the rule of the majority, a minority idea, no matter how valid or necessary, will be ignored or squelched. The only way we can rescue the world from entering another dark age of ubiquitous religious oppression (of whatever flavor) is to change the numbers. This second renaissance can only be achieved with an atheist majority, and that majority must be built over the next few generations.

Once the cancer of religious thought invades a host, the chance of a cure is virtually zero. Given a disease with this characteristic, the only reasonable course of action is to focus our efforts on prevention. All newborn babies are atheists. We must keep them that way in sufficient number to turn the tide.

For this reason, the religious issues that concern me most are those affecting our schools. The pledge of allegiance and intelligent design are infecting our children daily. For those who enter the classroom healthy, these may be their first exposure to the pathogen. For those who have been exposed at home, these references can strengthen the cancer, allowing it to metastasize to the point of inoperability. We must stop teaching faith in our public schools, and we cannot allow tax dollars to support private ones. For a teacher, who represents knowledge of the world to a young child, to lend credence to the superstitious drivel he learns from his family makes his acceptance of those ideas permanent and virtually irrevocable. On the contrary, if authority figures teach skepticism and the scientific method – teach our children how to learn rather than trust and memorize – that can change the world.

There are hopeful signs. The number of atheists in many parts of the world is on the rise. The transfer of religion from one generation to another is not perfect, and that trend will ultimately spell the end of religion in those places, though not quickly enough. I’ve seen a lot of American children participating in the online atheist movement, so clearly some of them are learning the right things and seeing the danger for themselves. Kingdom of Heathen is a perfect example. This is a blog formed when several atheist teenagers decided to join their independent, secular voices together to reach out to others their own age. Some of the things I’ve read from the contributors there give me a tremendous sense of hope. There are sensible, intelligent and thoughtful leaders already emerging from the next generation. It’s up to us to give them a shot at as many followers as we can in the time we have.

This post is already far too long, so I will sum it up and bring it to a close. If we fail to protect our children from superstition and substantially secularize the United States while the current war rages amongst the “peoples of the book,” it may well be another thousand years before we have another chance to stomp out religion and all of its hateful manifestations. Well, that may not be true. We may never have another chance.

~I AM~

Read that last sentence again.

One more time.

I’m practically speechless.

Now, I’m hardly a pro-choice activist. Don’t get me wrong. I am pro-choice, but with pro-life sympathies. I’m with Bill Clinton on this one. Abortion should be safe, legal and rare. Even outside of a religious context, I can understand why some people are so vehemently opposed to the idea of abortion, though I don’t understand why anyone feels they have the right to make this decision for someone else. My moderate position on this topic is why I never write about it.

However, no one can possibly have a moderate position on this law in South Dakota. Even an evangelical Christian should be able to see that this legislation is absolutely horrifying. Any person who could sit face-to-face with a woman carrying a child fathered by a rapist or family member and tell her that she has to give birth to that child is a monster, and anyone who couldn’t do that, and still supports this law, is a first-class hypocrite. Monster or hypocrite. Those are the choices. I wonder which one Mike Rounds is.

When a news story like this one surfaces, I have to reorient myself. I forget momentarily which country I’m in. This is a headline you expect in Iran or Somalia, not a western nation. If this law is upheld (and it might be given recent changes in the Supreme Court), it’s time for the United States of America to shut the hell up on human rights issues. Exactly what soap box can we stand on while preaching to China if an American state is allowed to keep a brutal law like this one? I am generally proud to be an American, but I’ve noticed that almost every time I have reason to be ashamed of it, it’s because the billowing flag of freedom has become snagged on the sharp corners of a cross.

~I AM~