Imperial Religious Duty

By Roy D. Follendore III

June 11, 2002

I was recently asked by a Jewish colleague of mine if I thought that Israel was a religious state. He said that it was not a religious state because it allows people from other faiths to vote and hold office. I thought about that and my answer surprised me. I said that it really does not matter because everyone over there wants to make a religious issue of everything. It is the tendency of the region to be preoccupied with religion, so in that way everything including the state is religious. The glue that holds the United States together is the separation of church and state. Religion gives guidance to the individuals within society. Religion also isolates and castigates societies for its own organizational profit.

Without the doctrine of the separation of church and state, religion can become its own motivation that works against the common good of the state. When you are out there doing good in the name of a religion, you are not doing good out of your own unselfish personal motivations. You are doing good for "your" cause. The exact same thing is true when doing good while working for your country. "Your" country benefits. The essential difference internally is that the concept of a citizen is different from that of a believer. A believer is asked to do good through the sacrifice of their rational thinking. The citizen is simply asked to support the greater good in spite of what they may think.

The most important thing to understand is that providing support while a member of Government does not require you to think differently, just act differently, when in the service of the state. When the time and place comes to vote out the politicians, and obey your rational mind you are as a democratic citizen are expected to do so. With religion that simply never happens. Religion is not a democracy.

The United States now has an administration in power that feels morally right in defending itself because of fundamental religious beliefs. That makes it somehow OK to deny Americans their civil rights, by classifying them as militants. Americans can now be detained indefinitely because the war on terrorism is indefinite. On these same grounds, Congress can be overridden by the Executive branch on treaties which were approved by Congress. These are fundamental issues that affect the Constitution of the United States. This is the same Constitution that our Chief Executive has sworn to uphold and protect.

At the same time, citizens are asked to support the creation of another huge Government organization to fall under the concept of Homeland Security. As citizens, in the call for National Security we have been asked to ignore the concept of separation of power. As Americans we have been asked to put more power into the hands of the few. The power of the Federal Government is being concentrated into an organization that will resemble the structure of the KGB, which defended the internal national security of the Soviet Union for so long.

Maybe it is time that we quit thinking of our duties to the United States so much as a religion. When the Emperor has no clothes, it should be recognized. Governments need far more rational thinking than faith to govern these days. Much of what has been going on since 911 has been irresponsible. The expenses that we have allowed to be budgeted though the illusions of a war against terrorism will not only bankrupt the United States economically, it will bankrupt the foundations of civil democratic society. If we Americans allow this to occur, then America's enemies will have prevailed.

.