I wrote this back in the Fall as a comment on Open thread...I'll give it one more shot.
The meat of the essay:
Leaving aside, for the moment, the Massive abuse of both Fact and Reason required to make such attacks seem "true"; such impositions seem "fair", and such legal quibbles seem portentious, there is a Much bigger and more perilous point which is being completely ignored: The Reintroduction of the divisive political debate over Theological Questions into the American Political Arena. It is Precisely this danger to civil society which the Constitutional prohibition of a "religious test" for Government officials and the adoption of the First Ammendment were designed to remove from the body politic.
Much political hay has been made over the last several months and years by exploiting the different Theological and expository differences between Faith Communities.
The Huckabee Campaign's supporters who declared that Gov. Mitt Romney's Mormon Faith was Not Christian...that Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan were "brothers." The implication being that no "Real Christian" could vote for Romney.
The Rev. Hagee and Rev. Parsley endorsements, acceptances and later rejections of/by Sen. McCain. With their implication that McCain supported the rhetorical excesses of THOSE religious leaders when he accepted their support.
The Jeremiah Wright mini-Series, where 1 or 2 minutes (out of 3 or 4 sermons) is assumed to be enough to accurately describe a ministry of 35 years and that moments of Anger are evidence of Hatred of Whites....all to support a Guilt By Association Smear of a member of the church (Sen. Obama) who has Said he disagreed with the statements and has now left that church. The Smear line goes (as is endlessly repeated in the anonymous cesspool of the internet) as follows: "Obama sat in the pew for 20 years listening to a racist, hatemongering pastor 'GD America' and only objected when he ran for President."
And it is NOT only about Candidates. Witness the ongoing effort to insert the Non-scientific Belief in a Creator/Designer/God, (which I happen to Personally share!) into the Scientific Process of determining Objective Facts. Science can neither Prove nor Disprove God, So the Objection comes from those whose particular interpretation of Faith is Challenged by inconvenient Facts.
Or the "Gay Marriage" Fake Controversy. Confusing The Religious Rite of Marriage over which the State can Never have ultimate control, (You saw "Braveheart, no?) with a governmental "legal contract" which does not require or forbid any religious endorsement and which functionally needs not be called "marriage"!
Leaving aside, for the moment, the Massive abuse of both Fact and Reason required to make such attacks seem "true"; such impositions seem "fair", and such legal quibbles seem portentious, there is a Much bigger and more perilous point which is being completely ignored: The Reintroduction of the divisive political debate over Theological Questions into the American Political Arena. It is Precisely this danger to civil society which the Constitutional prohibition of a "religious test" for Government officials and the adoption of the First Ammendment were designed to remove from the body politic.
At the Beginning of our Republic, The Anglican Church was the ONLY Legal Church in Virginia. Presbyterians like myself worshiped only in Violation of the Law! Our "church" buildings were euphemistically called "meeting houses" so as to avoid the Political wrath of the Anglican Church. The Colony of Rhode Island was Founded because of a Theological dispute which Literally "drove out" those holding the minority view. Then Consider the History of The LDS. Their founder, Joseph Smith was assassinated by a mob. His followers were burned out of Illinois and had to migrate to what must have seemed the very "end of the Earth" in order to escape Persecution by all the "good Christian Folk" of the Midwest.
Perhaps the only reasons these divisions did not destroy the nation at its birth were the seemingly unlimited "frontier" where the minority could escape their oppressors; and the Constitution's Legal prohibition on Government intervention in those disputes.
Today we have no frontier to which the "heretic" can flee in search of Freedom of Religion. We are left with 2 choices: Choose and Impose upon the minority a Single Religion and a Single Theology, Or Live by the United States Constitution and Completely remove ALL religious Debate from the Political Arena.
The first choice will inevitably, if not immediately result in war. We would become what Ireland became when the "Orangemen" imposed Presbyterianism over the Roman Catholics on that island. 300 years of civil war, oppression and terrorism. Further, even if all "dissenters" are actually "wiped out", History demonstrates that New "heresies" will arise. There is no way to stop individuals from thinking "unapproved thoughts", so The First Choice is Really a Choice for a Perpetual Tyranny.
Ultimately The Second Choice is the only rational one. If we cannot learn to not just "tolerate" but to accept The unquestionable Right of another person or group to Think, Believe and Worship (or NOT worship!) as they please among themselves; if we cannot grant to every other citizen a Right which we Demand for ourselves, then the Founding Fathers might just as well have selected a King to tell us what to do, think and believe and not wasted so much time, energy and thought on creating the Best system of Government "yet devised by man."
Government exists to reward or punish our Actions. Our Thoughts belong to ourselves. Otherwise we are no longer Americans.