Little Gods, No Morals

For several decades, it has become obvious to anyone paying attention that something is happening in our country. Words which once meant something very specific have taken on meanings which are not only different, they are sinister.

For instance, the First Amendment of our Constitution very clearly protects our right to worship as we please, free of governmental interference, when it speaks of the “Freedom of Religion”. Certain very vocal and treacherous elements in our society have taken those three simple words, which can only have one logical meaning, and turned them into “Freedom from Religion.”

Not satisfied with redefining the English language, they have embarked on a path to make their new version of the First Amendment a reality, in a direct attack on the Constitution as framed by our Founding Fathers. In order to achieve this goal, they have sought to convince the American people that the phrase “separation of Church and State” is a Constitutional principle when, in fact, those words never appear anywhere in the Constitution. They even go so far as to redefine their own words by turning “separation of Church and State” into “subjugation of Church by State.”Now, these facts have been covered amply by writers and radio and TV talk show hosts, by priests and ministers and rabbis. The real question is not that they want to destroy Freedom of Religion. That is unarguable in any serious manner. The real question is why they want to destroy Freedom of Religion.

The most extreme wing of Liberalism is characterized by narcissism. Their most controversial political goals are all based on the idea of “I want” even when it is to the detriment of those around them. When one’s idea of reality stems from pure humanism, the idea that the only God one need worship is oneself, one’s sense of omnipotence would tend to overwhelm any sense of duty to others. Similarly, the New Age philosophies which have become increasingly prevalent since the 1960s tell us that we are all part of God, that we are, in essence God ourselves. A different way of saying the same thing: “I am God, therefore I owe explanation to no one but myself.”

Of course, there’s a little fly in the ointment. When religions which have been around for thousands of years and stood the test of time – Christianity and Judaism – tell us that there is a God, one single, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Creator of everything and everyone, that sort of makes the humanistic, New Age view of theology seem just a tad selfish and egotistical. When those same religions make it clear that there is a clear line between the Creator and His creations, people might wonder where Liberal presumptuousness comes from. Could it be a psychological self-delusion? Is it just wishful thinking? Or is it an excuse to do what they wish, no matter the consequence?

So, if you want to be a God unto yourself, what are you to do when religion tells you that you cannot do something you badly want to do? You have two options: either hijack religion and change its rules to suit your wishes or destroy it completely. So, Marx and Engels declare religion to be the “opiate of the people” and condemn its very existence. Hitler carries off any clergy who oppose him and condemns them to death in his concentration camps. Stalin does his best to co-opt the Russian Orthodox Church.

In America, the Liberal successors to Marx, Engels, Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Mussolini are working feverishly to obliterate the Constitutionally guaranteed Freedom of Religion. At the same time, they have infiltrated the major Christian churches and Judaic communities in order to make it seem that there is legitimate debate as to the morality of such acts as abortion and homosexuality.

Naturally, a society has the right – and even the responsibility – to debate what they will and will not allow. A community can – and, indeed, must – tolerate and even encourage dissent in its quest to grow and advance. Societies and communities are secular creatures created by man to serve man’s needs. A Church, on the other hand, is a gathering of people who not only have similar values but are convinced that their values come not from themselves but directly from God. One can disagree with the principles a Church preaches. One cannot, however, try to change those principles. Morality cannot be determined democratically. It is not subject to headcounts or opinion polls. A ballot initiative can no more change the moral principles of a Church than it can change gravity.

One can only truly be the member of a religion if one is convinced that that particular religion is being led by the God one worships. Anyone who believes that the principles of his or her religion can be changed through the process of convincing other members does not, by definition, believe in the divine foundations of that religion’s principles.

If that is the case, that person should find a religion which better suits his or her view of morality. The right to stage a coup against the moral order of one’s religion simply does not exist.

What is even worse is when outsiders try to change a religion. That is not simply misguided, it is a vicious attack on the fundamental human rights of those who worship within the framework of that Church. It is a complete betrayal of the American principle of tolerance for differing understandings of reality, both natural and supernatural.

For any one person to be so arrogant as to tell another what he can or cannot believe about subjects on which the other’s Church has spoken definitively is reprehensible. It makes no difference whether you are for or against abortion rights or homosexuality or the death penalty or any one of several dozen topics of moral judgment. You can act politically to advance your agenda, we all have that right. To attack someone because he is true to his Church’s views on subjects which are clearly moral (at least in part) is unacceptable in the extreme. It is a prime example of the very intolerance against which Liberals rail publicly but practice religiously when they think no one’s looking.

Churches have an irreplaceable role in society: to give their believers a moral framework within which they can work with their neighbors and in a manner which does harm to no one. Every time a Liberal (or anyone else for that matter) attacks someone for their beliefs – even beliefs which are politically incorrect – the attacker is not only practicing intolerance and bigotry in its worst form but is taking a step towards creating a society which has lost all cohesiveness, a society based on the idea of “every man for himself.” That is a society in which no one can possibly be safe.

That is no society at all.