America is a secular nation

October 8, 7:06 PMIndependent ExaminerBrian Trent

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Have you read it? It ain't a Biblical document.

If you like religious freedom, you should be thankful we live by a secular Constitution.

Within every U.S. city, a citizen is entitled by First Amendment rights to select whatever house of worship he or she pleases. As long as religious practice doesn't infringe on the rights of others, we are constitutionally guaranteed this right. We can select any church, mosque, temple, or shrine which appeals to individual tastes or cultural heritage. An American even possesses the right to resurrect the Cult of Isis or Zeus. . . or to invent a new religion altogether. Just as importantly, citizens retain the freedom to not practice as well.

But it's the first ten words of that First Amendment which declare, in no uncertain terms, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” A Jew can believe that eating pork is wrong, a Hindu can refuse a hamburger, and a fundamentalist Christian can believe that women came from Adam's spare rib, yet no governmental authority can pass laws based on these beliefs. A Jewish president can’t make it illegal for me to eat shellfish, for example.

Afghanistan's former government didn't permit this liberty. It required men to grow their beards a specific length or risk imprisonment, while the woman who refused to wear her body-length burqa robe would be publicly beaten, tortured, or stoned to death. When the Taliban were overthrown, hundreds of young men happily smiled for cameras as they enjoyed a collective shave, indulging with wild abandon a freedom that the global community would never think twice about. Others willingly chose to keep their beards in observance of religious dogma. The point is that all Afghans once again had the freedom to choose.

This is the difference between religious freedom, and religious fundamentalism. The first one is American. The second one is an enemy to everything America stands for.

Article VI

How smart were the founding fathers? They wanted us to choose for ourselves what to be, while no administration could ever make laws based on a divinity. Want to be atheist? No problem! Want to be a Baptist? Go ahead! Want to be an Apollo-worshiping pagan moon-dancer? Feel free! The founding fathers wanted us to choose for ourselves what to be, while the government stayed neutral and secular.

Theocracy is an unforgivable wickedness in the world, as we see in many areas of the Middle East and when Christianity ruled the world during the Dark Ages. Freedom curls up under its brutal lights. But this doesn’t mean you condemn religion itself. Imagine a nation where different religions and perspectives are actually allowed, while the government stays way out of it. Now look around and recognize that we’re living in it, and that the only way for this to remain is for us to stay to what the founders wanted. “Protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And that Constitution is secular, with no mention of Jesus or God or Jehovah or Tlaloc the Aztec rain deity.

Alas, many American religious leaders resent the concept of religious freedom. What they seek is religious dominion. The late Jerry Falwell was a prime example of this; he despised America's Constitution, and desperately tried to advance dominion. Not a progressive society, but a fundamentalist one.

“If we are going to save America and evangelize the world,” said Falwell, “We cannot accommodate secular philosophies that are diametrically opposed to Christian truth.”

Before the Constitution, religious leaders using "spectral evidence" to justify murder:

How is this so different from the words of former Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar who, before September 11, 2001, oversaw the campaign to destroy all his country's ancient Buddhist statues, some of which dated back to the second century? And what reason for this destruction? Omar explained: “I don't care about anything else but Islam.” Religious pluralism, indeed, any pluralism, is forbidden. Law comes from the "inspired" rule of the church or mosque.

Despite fundamentalist fallacies, the American republic is founded on secularism. How important was this to the founders? They made sure it formed the first part of the First Amendment. They inserted Article 6, which stated that no religious test will ever be a requirement to public office. They steadfastly avoided all Biblical references, language, and rule. And according to it’s own words, the Constitution is “the supreme Law of the Land.”

In much of the Muslim world, there is no liberty - only submission - to a theocratic elite. Invoking God, women are violently oppressed and shut away like lepers, scientific inquiry is stifled, and free expression is deemed an act of Satan. Much of the Muslim world seeks a global caliphate. We have Christian leaders who seek a forced global Christendom. The results would be identical - except for the name of the God to whom dissidents are sacrificed, and the specific holy book being chanted while blood runs in the streets.

American traitor Pat Robertson

Fundamentalist Christians and Islamists are of the same pathology. They see Earth as a big game of Risk for supernatural puppeteers. This is why we must remember our secular roots. It's not about atheism or removing the freedom to worship. It's about keeping government and faith separate.

Fundamentalists are nothing less than our own Taliban wannabes. They stand for a perverse rape of the Constitutional wall of separation, theological dominion over a "land of the free." It's worse than disingenuous: it is traitorous to American liberty, including religious freedom itself.