During my sixty years or so of following politics in America, I have seen several distressing trends. One has to do with the increased viciousness between people of opposite political parties. If someone did not agree with your policy choices in 1965, you were characterized as “wrong-headed” or “mistaken.” Today, people with this same ideology would be called “traitors” or “scum.” During the George H.W. Bush election campaign of 1988, I noticed the first use of the “L-word.” This was an attempt to paint people who were of liberal persuasion in pejorative terms, and today we have a President that says in his Christmas messages (2023 and 2024) that liberals and people who vote democrat can “Go to Hell.”
In the eighties, talk radio took off and the favorite whipping boy for society’s ills were the dedicated public servants in Washington (along with public school teachers across the U.S.) Like a ceaseless, pounding drum, men who never served their country in uniform were able to snatch a megaphone or con a microphone in order to pour out a litany of venom across the AM and FM airwaves as they demonized their opponents. These people were not encumbered by the truth once they discovered that their followers never botherd to check. They alse proved the point that a negative and hateful message could often trump a positive and caring message, especially if it struck chords of fear in their followers. Thus, the unfounded rumor that illegal, Chinese immingrants were eating pet dogs worked so well in the late nineteenth century that it was dusted off and repurposed to use against Haitians in the early twenty-first century.
Yet another step into the darkness came from aficionados of television documentaries who saw themselves as historians and who rewrote American history for the masses to suit their beliefs, religious or otherwise. They saw America as a chosen nation. They saw the framers of the Constitution as dedicated men of God with a common purpose in mind. Fueled by false prophets, they saw God’s wrath and condemnation about to fall on this country unless Republicans could control government. Many of these people believe Americans must be coaxed back to church (forced if necessary.) The belief that the U.S. was and is a Christian nation means to many MAGA evangelicals that Jews cannot hold elective office because they are not Christian. And if Jews can’t, then Muslims, Hindus, atheists and agnostics certainly cannot, either. As just one example, this very week, Congresswomen Mary Miller (R, IL) has been complaining about a Sikh who was invited to lead the U.S. House of Representatives in an opening prayer. At first, she appeared to confuse Giani Singh with a Muslim because of his dastaar (turban), but she corrected herself (though she never quite righted herself) over the incident, which could not have taken place, incidentially, without the blessings of the Republican majority of the House. Said Miller in her original remarks:
“It’s deeply troubling that a Muslim [sic] was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning. This should never have been allowed to happen . . .America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it. May God have mercy!”
Ironically, today is the 333rd anniversary of the execution of Briget Bishop, the first person executed (bu hanging) for witchcraft in the U.S. Credit: Matrioshka (Shutterstock.)
Were we to adopt this sort of civil intolerance, we would not only be in violation of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, we would also be only a “stone’s throw” away from putting witches, gays, women who commit adultery (and others) to death according to Mosaic law. This is not to say that America is not a sinful nation. Our individual and collective sins are undoubtedly a stench in the nostrils of God and we should understand the peril we are in, as Johnathan Edwards did in his day. I’m only saying that I would rather personally let God judge me for my sins than some posse of self-appointed spiritual vigilantes who believe they have a divine right to do anything they damn well please in the name of Jesus. If the grace of God were ever forced on people as law, our problems would only get worse, and there would certainly be a bloodbath. Only God can know what lies in the hearts of men and women.
My conclusion after spending much more time than I ever thought I needed to was that while there was never a common prayer during the four plus months of 1787 while the Constitution was written, and even though the framers deliberately left out any mention of God in the most important document of American history still, at least some of them were Christians as we understand Christians today. Some, but far from all.
Currently, the battle in the U.S, is over diversity, equity and inclusion. Again, after having a black American President elected (for two terms no less), I never thought we’d be facing white supremacy again, or at least in my lifetime. We may loudly proclaim that in America, “All men are created equal.” However, the unvarnished truth is that some are created more equal than others. Today, we have the best president that money can buy.
THE PRICE WE PAID
What we’ve learned as a nation has not come cheap, or painless. Almost 400,000 black people from Africa were taken to our shores in chains, with many more headed to South America. This was not the land of milk and honey for them and their children. And, since the ratification (1865) of the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery, at least 4,400 people of color who were legally free were indifferently lynched. Another 4,000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears, driven across their own land. Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt (February 1942) forcibly incarcerated 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent for the duration of the war. Many of these people had never been anywhere outside the U.S. And there were other massacres in American history which I have not mentioned.
