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From: david@cvl.UUCP (David Harwood)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: state and religion
Message-ID: <21@cvl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Feb-85 18:38:43 EST
Article-I.D.: cvl.21
Posted: Sun Feb  3 18:38:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Feb-85 07:09:38 EST
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Organization: Computer Vision Lab, U. of Maryland, College Park
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	There was a recent newspaper article about a government 
official who wrote favorably about state religion to a group of
church schools. This did not disturb the Reagan administration.
It should disturb everyone who is a Christian; after all, Jesus
was put to death by the cooperation of the official political 
and religious powers of that time.
	Doesn't anyone remember the Holy Roman Empire, or the 
persecution of Quakers and other sects at the time of the English
Revolution? Why do you think the First Amendment guarantees freedom
of religion, of assembly, and of speech, in one declaration? 
	Well, for example, the first law suppressing minority 
religious sects at the time of the English Revolution (300+ years
ago) was the Quaker Act which prohibited the assembly of more 
than three Quakers, even for religious meetings. Of course, nearly 
half of them were put in jail at one time or another, since they 
were not so cowardly, but when they came to this country, before 
the union of states, they passed the first laws providing religious 
freedom. Later, we have the First Amendment as it is.
	The idea of a state religion which supports our military-
industrial complex is no different than that of the Church supporting
the Empire. The Empire profited from warfare all over the world,
and taxed everyone else. The Church "saw that this was good," to
obtain the kingdom of God by force.
	As far as that goes, I'm not at all happy with my own
Catholic Church's letter concerning nuclear warfare: I recall asking
the man who is said to be principally responsible for writing 
it how long would the Church continue to give morally conditioned
acceptance of nuclear deterrence, conditioned on negotiation in good
faith to eliminate these weapons, when there has never been any
time that the total number has not been increased deliberately. He 
could not say. 
	This was two years ago, then negotiations failed altogether.
Meanwhile, we have a government which borrows a staggering deficit,
as if there is no tomorrow, to primarily support defense-related 
industries and militant political states (at least one is really
the world's first military-industrial welfare state). Not to mention
one that doesn't give a damn about starvation in Africa or human
rights in Third World nations. It's purpose seems to be to employ
the entire planet in producing and using weapons, paying for them
by shirking its moral responsibility to those who are suffering.
The Soviet Union is no better.
	What about Reagan's Shining City upon the Hill? It's right 
there with the Light of the Nations. At the feet of the God of 
Armed Forces and National Defence -- who (why poke around with clouds)
comes on the wings of a fighter-bomber.
	What about the upcoming Geneva talks? How can it be that
the new ones will succeed? They surely will not if we have an economy
based on military production, and a state religion that brain-washes
its citizens, a state religion that is opposed to the teachings of Christ,
replacing charity and nonviolence with state propaganda mixed with
self-fulfilling apocalyptic imagination. The mad Emporer Nero may have 
had time to fiddle while Rome burned, then to blame it on the Christians.
But how much responsibility do we Christians have if we wait to see
how long the Emporers will fiddle while the good Earth burns.
	A witness in the Westmoreland trial was recently quoted
by the Washington Post as saying that the motto of the CIA is:
"They shall know the truth, and the truth shall set them free."
	This, of course, is a wellknown verse of the Gospel. I would hate
to think that the state religion would "disinform" a new generation
that there is little difference between the CIA and the apostles,
or that, in fact,  there would be little difference between the CIA and their
teachers and pastors.

					David Harwood