America's God Problem

 I grew up nominally Anglican, an inheritance from both my parents.  My mother grew up with a Scottish Presbyterian father whose religious observances were in line with his other severities, like sitting up straight at the dinner table.  Religion for him was all about how it looked to the neighbours.  I never heard him talk about God.   My parents rarely went to church, except on Christmas Eve for the carols.   Neither of them went to church on Sundays though they sent their children to Sunday school, believing they should know something about religion so they would be informed when they were old enough to embrace it or reject it. They weren't bothered either way.  God and Jesus weren't people whose names came up in everyday conversation.  I understood later they just wanted their kids out of the house so they could have a few precious hours to themselves on Sunday mornings.   We were trained to say grace before meals but the only trace of religion in it was in the "May the Lord make us truly thankful."  For all we knew this Lord could be the guy who issued the paycheques that allowed us to buy food.  There was no spiritual connection in this recitation of grace.  The Lord's Prayer that we learned at school was more specific, but was too archaic for our young minds.  Who wants daily bread when there are so many other interesting things to eat?  Did trespassing mean raiding our neighbour's garden?

Although we lived north of the border we grew up on American television. Among the cultural references that jumped out because they were different from our own were the ubiquitous twin beds of married couples and televangelists like Oral Roberts.  Supposed miracles from the laying on of hands and the blatant pitch for money seemed to cancel each other out and make fools of these people and their message. In my teens I became even less religious than my parents who were barely there at all, and was vindicated when I finally renounced organized religion and wasn't struck by a thunderbolt from God.  Although I had heard terms like the Bible Belt when talking about the eastern US, I also knew there were pockets of Bible thumpers in Canada, not only in the farming communities of the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, but in pockets in the prairies.  I saw these people as misguided because although I had no objection to what anyone believed, I didn't agree with their aggressive ministry which was only a short step below the pests of Jehovah Witnesses who came to the door on Saturday mornings. 

American television networks didn't blatantly broadcast all of the evangelist's more strident messages, but their norms were inserted in more subtle ways.  American television networks rely on sponsors and are sensitive to feedback from their viewers, so words or images that might offend delicate sensibilities are omitted.  In the movies people can swear and say they don't  believe in God, but these were usually the bad guys.  Blasphemy didn't make it onto television at all. 

Not only the Christian religion, but many others besides, at their inception understood the power of fear and isolation.  They spoke as if their Gods were the only way.  Everything else belonged to the evil other side.  They nurtured the philosophy of "If you're not with us you're against us."  There was not an option of accepting their misguiding beliefs without participating in them. For Christians in the last half of the 20th century, the choices for fair minded people became even more restrictive by using a clever tactic.  I learned at my mother's knee about what she called "motherhood issues."  She was scathing about politicians who got on their soapboxes and said "I'm all for motherhood."  This would get huge cheers from the crowd because it was an obvious good thing.  The dirty side of this sort of message is that it implies anyone who doesn't agree with them must be a monster who thinks that motherhood is bad.   

In the 1950's the American Pledge of Allegiance was altered to insert the word God into it.  The original pledge of allegiance to the flag was written in 1892 and made no mention of God or which flag people were pledging allegiance to.  When the Cold War heated up in the 1950's, Eisenhower agreed to add the word God to the text to make a statement that Americans believe in God, while those who didn't include God in their pledge were by definition Godless communists.  Even as late as 1987 George Bush Sr. said, "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."  Americans had claimed God as their own and anyone who didn't share their capitalist value system, must be a child of Satan.  Bush may or may not have been aware that America had only been one nation under God since 1954, only 33 years earlier.  

In America, politicians are expected to be, at least in name, God fearing citizens of one stripe or another, mostly Protestant Christians.  90% of US congressmen identify as Christian, leaving the rest to be taken up by 7% Jewish, negligible Muslims, with hardly a non-believer in sight.  In short, it is impossible to hold any of the levers of power in the US unless a person is religious.  There are probably those who lie about their beliefs to save awkward questions and make themselves acceptable to electors, and there or those who profess belief in a religion while blatantly doing the opposite of what is acceptable in any religion.  Selling a holy book to raise money for legal fees to escape from crimes committed, wouldn't wash anywhere in the world, yet in brainwashed America it gains a political con man millions of dollars and followers.  This is a perversion of morality as defined by any religion or any secular society. 

America's God perversion was nurtured by an exploitation of people's fear that if they didn't follow the herd, they would be condemned and sent to some mythical hell. They raised their children to be God fearing just as they had been, and not to ask rational questions.  The children believed their parent's fanaticism was normal.  However, statistics show that 23% of the public in the US,  privately admit they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”. Where are these people in the political discourse?  Not only do they have no voice in government, according to some like Bush they should not even be considered citizens. Non-believers are considered militant extremists and should have no right to take place in public discourse.  Although the US Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"  there are many ways beyond the legal system that a religion can become a state sanctioned religion.  

It has been said that, "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and wearing the cross."  Using people's natural fear of exclusion, America long ago wrapped itself in the flag with the 1804 chant,  "My country, right or wrong."  This outlook promotes loyalty and devotion to a country, prioritizing the nation's interests even if they are not morally or ethically justifiable. The evangelists and other so-called God fearing Christians are not much different from the Ku Klux Klan and their fiery crosses, with their calls for exclusion, intolerance, and retribution.  "When the rapture comes, those who were against us will burn in Hell."  Simple souls believe this rhetoric and are happy to carry out their God fearing master's wishes in real life. "Kill the Godless judge or politician and his unholy children."  Religion has been twisted beyond recognition and has come to live in America.  Americans watch in horror at theocracies in other parts of the world with their medieval prohibitions, while being blind to their own restricted fundamentalist outlook.  They have painted themselves into a corner that it will be impossible to recover from without education, but generations of children continue to be brainwashed and told that to ask awkward questions is unpatriotic and unAmerican.  Intelligence is a dirty word in America, an attitude that successive governments continue to foster.  Uninformed people whose ignorance is glorified, don't ask questions, but blindly obey their church and state.  "God is on our side," they say, "therefore whatever we do is right and justified."  This is not the path to a fair and equal society.