The recent Summit for Religious Freedom is introducing a new generation to activism for the separation of church and state.
Lately I’ve been more and more concerned with the rise of Christian Nationalism in our country and its increasing entanglement in our government.
I am a strong supporter of the separation of “Church and State,” or, in other words, Religious Freedom. That includes the freedom to NOT participate in any kind of religion or spiritual practice at all!
Forcing someone to believe or practice as you do, to me, is a sign that you really aren’t secure in your own spiritual path. If you were, you wouldn’t feel the need to FORCE compliance.
Of course, this “forced compliance” is an old bad habit in world history. In European history, it goes back many thousands of years. One of the pressure points of Christian Nationalism is Emperor Constantine’s Council of Nicea in 325 CE which aimed to codify the different points of Christian belief that resulted in the Nicene Creed. And yes, this was Christian Nationalism, a mixing of “Church and State.”
Constantine’s achievement was perhaps greatest in social and cultural history. It was the development, after his example, of a Christianized imperial governing class that, together with his dynastic success, most firmly entrenched the privileged position of Christianity...the basis of the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constantine-I-Roman-emperor/Legacy
Much of the Council of Nicea was about determining what was to be official Christian doctrine, and what was to be “heresy.” The powerful Bishops in Alexandria were being challenged by a cleric by the name of Arius, who taught that Jesus was a “created being.” The Bishops could not let this stand, and de-frocked Arius. Arius went to other Bishops and Clerics (including a relative of Constantine) and created a group that challenged the Bishops of Alexandria. All this made for a lot of division and bickering in the Christian groups. Constantine called together about 300 Bishops from all over the Empire to draw up a “Creed.” Most of the Bishops signed the “Creed.” Those who did not were stripped of their authority.
Constantine used the newly legalized Christians (about 10% of the population of the Empire) to help to solidify and unify his imperial command. He may also have helped to stop the practice of female priests!
(If you are interested in the politicization of the Church a little later in that time period, see the movie Agora (2009), which takes place in Alexandria in 391 C.E. “It's not a perfect film (the acting and dialogue is a bit clunky at times) but it is a very courageous view of the battle between rational science and "free thinkers" versus religious doctrine. And even if it takes place 1600 years ago, the frightening conflicts are still here today and the questions the film raises are, unfortunately, still very relevant.” (Comment by a reviewer of the film) It shows the burning of the great Library of Alexandria and how that happened.
The reason I am referring to Constantine, Alexandria, and the Council of Nicea is to focus on the fact that this is a long-standing conflict and that the use of religion for political purposes is NOT a new problem.
What brought my interest in this topic to the boiling point is the recent declaration by Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, to require Public schools in Texas to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school-year.
This is not the first time Abbott has championed the display of the Ten Commandments in public space. Back in 2005, when he was Texas Attorney General, this happened:
Thomas Van Orden - a homeless man with a suspended law license - challenged the constitutionality of displaying this monument on Capitol grounds in 2005. It violated, he argued, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In the subsequent case Van Orden v. Perry (that's Rick Perry), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was constitutional. The Court concluded that the monument was constitutional because it had historical, not simply religious, value.
This article: 8 times that a 10 Commandments monument had its day in court (quoted above and written in 2015) tells of that and 7 other times when the Ten Commandments were challenged in court. The results were mixed, although the Ten Commandments were removed most of the time.
Back in 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled about public schools:
"We conclude that Kentucky's statute requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school rooms has no secular legislative purpose, and is therefore unconstitutional." – US Supreme Court, Stone v. Graham
The Christian Nationalists are getting more desperate, as are the Republicans in general. They seem to think that the end of the world is getting close and they need to be rulers of the world by the time Christ comes back! (They also need to use up all the resources!)
Now, Texas Republicans and Governor Greg Abbott plan to push their religious beliefs into the public sphere again!
Besides this push for Christian religion insertion into the schools, there is more and more language about “religious battle.”
"Believers are in a spiritual battle," said Dr. Charles Stanley, an evangelical broadcaster and founder of In Touch Ministries in Atlanta, "between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness."
This language is not new (again), but it is getting ramped up as Republicans get more desperate and ally themselves with Christian Nationalists more and more.
Here’s an excerpt from an article on the Pagan website “The Wild Hunt”—
"This is a war that we're in," said Trump loyalist Michael Flynn said last year. "This is a big spiritual war." He referred to Nancy Pelosi as a demon, earning a standing ovation at an event in Oklahoma.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis quoted the famous passage in Ephesians 6:11, calling believers to "put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes," though the Governor changed the word devil to the word "left."
"They see this as spiritual warfare, and Trump is on the side of the angels," John Fea, a historian at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, told AP last week. Fea researches evangelical Christianity's role in American history. "In this view, Trump is politically a savior, he is going to restore America, and he will rise from the ashes in November despite the persecution and the suffering."
In February, religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor, from the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, said, "It's really a movement that's only been around for less than 30 years… [it was] seen as fringy, was seen as the realm of hucksters, seen as kind of low-brow and populist and extremist."
Growing segments of Christian denominations and other conservative faiths are targeting "the occult," claiming it is a dangerous societal trend that must be exposed. Commensurate with that rise is an increase in Christian media attention about "spiritual warfare" and the need for surveillance and elimination of occult movements – which includes "Witchcraft" and "Paganism."
The definition of “occult” is usually left purposely vague. According to those Christian Nationalists quoted in this article, it could be “divination, necromancy, soothsaying, Satanism and pedophilia." Or it could be "pictures, plays, theater, sculpture or any other type of art.” It could be playing with Ouija boards, tarot cards, Reiki, or doing yoga, or even getting “pagan” tattoos! Indeed, the word “pagan” has been demonized in many ways.
The Pagan point-of-view can be seen in this Editorial on “The Wild Hunt”: Spiritual Warfare Rhetoric and anti-Pagan sentiment is reaching contagion by Manny Moreno.
Good news on Religious Freedom and the separation of Church and State is the first SUMMIT FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM! (#SRF2023)
This recent event brought together people who are serious about Religious Freedom and highlighted a new generation’s enthusiasm for a fresh kind of democratic activism.
SRF was convened by Americans United for Separation of Church and State in collaboration with partners, including The Interfaith Alliance, the National Education Association, American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, Democracy Forward, Catholics for Choice, the National Council of Jewish Women, etc.
Part of the Summit’s activity was to lobby Congress to pass the "Do No Harm Act".
From the SRF page:
Religious freedom is a shield that protects us all, not a sword to harm other people. But now, many are misusing a federal law that was designed to protect religious freedom–the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)–to claim a right to deny access to health care, jobs, and government-funded services, and to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and nonreligious people.
The Do No Harm Act is simple: It’s designed to restore RFRA to its original intent. It preserves RFRA’s power to protect religious freedom, while also clarifying that it may not be used to harm others.
I like to drop the use of inflammatory terms like “battle.” There’s no reason for violence or bloodshed in our religious differences. That’s really something that can be left in the past. For now, we can unite in freedom and those who want to, can come together for the good of all, including the good of this planet upon which we all live!
We can unite in sisterhood and brotherhood at this time and move forward together in freedom, love, and democracy! Religious liberation for all, and freedom from Religion for those who desire it! And may we all acquire for ourselves the freedom to define for ourselves our deepest connection with All That Is.
