Christianity was always a political organization. It is an imperial religion today, and has been one since it was elevated from an obscure sect of poverty-loving ascetics to the State Religion by Emperor Constantine.
He adopted it, with some editing, as a way of organizing and inspiring the loutish masses to accept and assist his imperial ambitions, first against his brother-in-law's legions, and then against all comers.
He made it a superstar. He launched Christianity upon the world stage overnight, by force of imperial arms and wealth. It really should be called Constantinism, since he is its real founder. But I digress.
After Constantine, to have a career in the Roman Legions or Senate or upper reaches of society, you had to be a practicing Christian. The tight bond between military conquest and Christianity established under Constantine remains unchanged to this day -- in terms of saving souls for Jesus, in terms of liberating other countries by brute force, in terms of spreading Christian mercy and enlightenment at the point of a gun or under the threat of economic sanction and starvation. Historically, death and misery is apportioned to populations who do not convert.
These brothers in arms, the Bible and the Gun, have rarely been separated. "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" is the Eleventh Christian Commandment.
But let us leave history aside and approach the subject brand new.
When I consider religion, I see that it has an inward and an outward expression. The dividing line is your own skin.
What goes on within you while you sit alone in prayer or communion or reverie or meditation happens within your own soul, inside your own skin, and happens only to you. No other person is in there. What happens, happens only between you and Spirit, according to your inward abilities.
I label this inner, solitary experience spirituality. It happens to human beings of all faiths, cultures, continents. Sometimes you have to search and work for spirituality. Sometimes it comes unbidden, like a thief in the night, and awakens your soul and inner faculties.
Then there is the world outside your skin, after you open your eyes and want to talk to others about what you experienced while alone inside your skin.
As soon as two or more human beings discuss and discover that they share similar beliefs about the way the world works -- what is moral, what is holy, how to live and so on -- you have a group. In action. Even if that action is to go about their lives peacefully and set a good example to others, they have set upon a group action in this world, to advance an agenda, a cause, a creed. And that is the very definition of politics.
I label this outward group expression of shared beliefs religion. It is self evident that it is political -- it is agreed upon group behavior, here in this temporal world, actively and passionately promoting a defined creed, or world view.
A world view held passionately. Beyond discussing. Beyond logic and science. Not open to criticism. A matter of faith. Take it or leave it. Be one of us or be with Them.
It is one of the inherent follies of our species that we so easily forget the spiritual -- found only by sitting alone in prayer, within our own skin -- as we pursue outward group action to advance 'our' world view against all other world views.
Christianity was and is perfectly organized for just this purpose. It is an imperial religion, suffering no rivals to survive. In the company of another faith, Christianity seeks a fight to the death.
Consider: the agreed upon Christian beliefs have at their core the conquest of the world for Jesus. Either he comes back to do the job himself, or his followers do it all for him ahead of time so he can come back or has to come back. One way or the other, total conquest happens. No soul is left alone, left unsorted. Everyone is either with Us, or with Them.
That's the core program. If you really believe the Bible, if you really believe in the Trinity, if you really believe in the Second Coming, if you really accept that black Book, then you have to do your part to conquer the world for Jesus.
And since most of the world's human beings have no interest in your total conquest project, you are going to have to carry both your Bible and your gun to get anywhere with it.
And your war will not end in your lifetime, and you will never be at peace in your own skin again.