Fundamentalism continued

James Madison, the father of our Constitution, warned us when he said to beware of the “malignant influence” of religion-based intolerance. He guided the construction of a “wall of separation” between church and state [Roger Williams was the first to use that term and Thomas Jefferson would borrow it when he wrote the Articles of Religious Freedom for Virginia.] with the First Amendment.

His words have never been more prophetic!

Misguided, narrow minded, religious authoritarians in our Legislature want to implement a “state religion.” They either haven’t or can’t read the US Constitution. They want to extend the waiting period for obtaining a divorce to two years as if another year of misery, spouse and child abuse, and financial irresponsibility will solve this serious social problem. They want to enter your bedroom and tell you who you can love and who you can marry. [One man and one woman doesn’t begin to deal with the polygamy and sexual slaves found in the scripture they hold so dear.] They—and it’s always ignorant men mostly—want to control women’s bodies taking freedom and self-determination from them.

Nationally and in North Carolina blurry eyed zealots, distorting the Second Amendment [I don’t want to take your legal and reasonable guns from you, but is a shoulder held surface to air missile really a constitutional right?] have no sense of compassion or concern for the children being killed every day in our homes and on our streets. Surely reasonable people can find a solution to the carnage, and it isn’t the seven (13) dwarfs filibustering gun legislation in a show of group “deafness”.

Fundamentalism, whether religious or political, is based on ignorance, misogyny, bigotry, and violence. The unique form of American Christianity  is reaping the consequences of the emotionalism of the Great Awakenings, the apocalyptic interpretation of the Civil War [folks, that ended in April, 1865!], anti-intellectual protest to science (biological evolution as one example) and biblical criticism, and a millenarian denial of social responsibility. It absolutely amazes me that so-called Christians take their orders from the atheist Ayn Rand, the apostle of the Virtue of Selfishness, rather than Jesus of Nazareth or the New Testament they claim to honor.

We desperately need a transformation of self and a transformation of society that will get us closer to dreams and ideals of a compassion based nation.