The proponents of the doctrine of Separation of Church and State have found a way to drive a wedge between Old American Christianity and Secular Humanist Christianity. Meanwhile the pure secular humanists in the US have surreptitiously taken up the cause of atheism in America and are trying to destroy the form of personal Christianity that has flourished in America since the beginning. Christians flocked to America to escape the repressive organized religion that made life in Mediaeval Europe a nightmare. America was a safe haven for the oppressed Christians during the Dark Ages of Europe following the turn of the 15th Century.
The Pioneers in America enjoyed a refreshing sense of religious freedom during the birth of the American nation. But the Reformation that swept European Christianity in the 16th Century brought a new Renaissance in all facets of life. Soon this Reformation came to America with a new wave of immigrants and the old recalcitrant dogmas of organized religion began to choke free American Christianity. This form of Christianity, namely organized religion, began to attack native American religions and ultimately turned against the original pioneers of America and brought them under one umbrella of Christian faith with coexisting churches.
At the formation of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson and his Democrat cohorts saw the need to relieve the encroachment of the old established churches in Europe over free American Christianity. The doctrine of the Separation of Church and State began as an exercise in freedom and equality. But over the next two centuries this doctrine mushroomed into religious intolerance and racism that led to the Civil War.
Freedom and Equality or Life and Liberty are supposed to lead to the Pursuit of Happiness; however, the Civil War wasn't a happy time for American Christianity. The defeated South clung to reformed Christianity and the victorious North promoted the old traditional forms of Christianity with ties to European churches. Things settled down with religion emerging as a panacea for everyone. Two world wars and the Depression shook this balance of power between North and South again. Christianity in America took a backseat to secular humanism that dealt more realistically with the rise of totalitarianism in Europe.
In order for life and liberty to lead to the pursuit of happiness, America had to fight again. This constant return to belligerence and brutality destroyed the discernment regarding what constituted the forces of good and evil. The evil that caused the genocide of millions of people was put into perspective through the trials of the guilty leaders, while ignoring the racist doctrines that brought these leaders to power.
After all this, Secular Humanism emerged as the winner in this new world order. With Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq behind us, the doctrine of Separation of Church and State has come to represent a new reality for America: avoid religious strife at all cost and promote atheism as a form of tolerance and religious freedom; let the State operate outside of the constraints of all religious codes or morality; moreover, let the US Constitution be the arbiter of justice in all matters, regardless of whether they fall in the sphere of State or Church.
When this wedge splits America into believers and non-believers, atheism will become the new doctrine of America.
It remains to be seen if the re-awakening of American Christianity of the last election will survive the new onslaught of atheism in the Interim Elections of 2006.
March 7, 2006
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