Riff Raff: Godvernment, the new testament

One might think even with a superficial knowledge of history and religion we would see the advantage of avoiding God-based government or government-based God.

That was the beginning line of an essay I first published March 25, 2012, in response to the rapid rise of Rick Santorum in the GOP presidential primary. Thankfully, he was just a shooting star. But the 2016 cycle brings us another round of folks running for president who think the country a church and all of us sheep.

What follows is a revision of that essay to fit the theocratic maelstrom of 2016.

Let’s begin with Cruz. This Ivy League lawyer, who has had a government job his working career and who gets special loans from Wall Street bankers but IS DEFINITELY NOT an insider, says our individual rights come from the Creator and not the Constitution.

Holy Sh … yster.

This is shaping up to be a 4G election – not in terms of technology, but in terms of what-made-America-greatology. First, that black president says he’s a Christian, but he doesn’t act like it, we’re told, and he surrounds himself with folks who’ve never been to an evangelical summer youth camp. God is not his co-pilot.

And when he’s not dissing God, he’s trying to pilfer your gun collection. And when he’s not dissing God and trying to melt down your guns into Obamaphones, he’s letting the gays marry and buy wedding cakes and adopt kids who’ve been abandoned by traditional marriage parents. As if God, guns and gays wasn’t enough, we have a President who wants to welcome to America them God-forsaken Muslims who, we all know, are terrorists with mayonnaise jars full of Zika-virus mosquitoes, bomb-carrying drones with GPS coordinates to Baptist churches, and spoilers for the next Star Wars movie.

These GOP candidates – with the exception of Ohio Gov. John Kasich – say the country has moved so far to a godless leftist U.S. flag-stomping and rainbows on the White House anarchy that a moderate won’t do. They say we need another outsider conservative like Reagan.

But are these folks talking about THE President Ronald Reagan? That Reagan raised taxes, was divorced and remarried, liberalized immigration laws, presided over a major deficit increase, was a registered Democrat for several decades, and negotiated a radical arms treaty with the Soviets when many right wing Republicans opposed such a move. Is this the Reagan to which they refer? Or is there some other Reagan in their version of the 6,000-year-old universe?

Reagan’s view on church and state roles: “We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.”

Reagan wouldn’t stand a chance with today’s Trump-Cruz-Rubio supporters.

Before you good Christians who pray before supper and sporting events respond to the above by doing or saying something Jesus wouldn’t, please know that Faith — individual Faith — is a marvelous thing. This essay is not an attack on Faith; rather, it’s a reminder of how well-meaning people and ill-mannered governments frequently hijack something so individually important and private as a relationship with a Deity.

And history shows us a continuous and unfortunate string of such hijacking. To wit, what follows are a few historical summaries courtesy of religious leaders and religious thought of the day.

• It’s OK to kill, heinously torture and/or enslave non-believers. Especially Arabs. And Protestants. And them damn Huguenots. And especially the Jews, you know, because those folks killed Christ.

• Your King and Queen, no matter how oppressive, were appointed by God and your opposition to them would be an act of blasphemy requiring the death of you and your family. Have a nice day. (signed, The Pope)

• Those native folks in Africa should be conquered, ruled and/or enslaved so they may see the light of the Lord.

• Native Americans deserved to be killed and rounded up because they were uncivilized peoples incapable of understanding Judeo-Christian beliefs.

• Galileo is wrong and should be punished. We might also harass his family. Ditto for Copernicus. And Darwin.

• Women aren’t able to own property, and they can’t vote.

• Women are property.

• Women aren’t able to be political rulers — unless part of a divinely-appointed monarchy.

• Women can’t serve in the military.

• Blacks in the U.S. aren’t able to own property, and they can’t vote.

• Blacks in the U.S. are property.

• Blacks in the U.S. can’t go to school with white children.

• Blacks can’t serve in the military.

• Blacks who don’t know their place in society are probably Communists.

• Giving women the right to vote and own property is part of a humanistic agenda to destroy the foundation of a God-fearing, western Civilization.

• Giving blacks the right to vote and own property is part of a Communist/liberal agenda intended to destroy the foundation of the God-fearing U.S. during the Cold War.

• Homosexuals in the U.S. should not have full rights of citizenship as straight people.

• Giving homosexuals the right to marry, serve in the military and adopt children is part of a liberal, United Nations-One World government agenda to destroy the U.S. — the only country remaining that is blessed by God.

That’s an incredible track record of being wrong on levels that were broadly oppressive and often fatal. And any one of the above items is within reach of any generation.

Preachers say we’re supposed to fear God, but the continued political support for folks like Cruz is running a close second on the Stuff-I-Fear meter.