Someone recently tweeted that the day’s Wordle represented fanatical members of the not-so-Supreme Court, and that word was “awful.” This is no game spoiler, because the current Christofascist majority of the Court is beyond appallingly awful.
And the actual border crisis going on in this country isn’t down in South Texas, it’s everywhere. It’s the failure to recognize and maintain the border that is supposed to exist between church and state via the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
The reality is that both crises are borne of racial hatred. On the border, and on the trampling of our Constitutional right to not have the government cram its concept of religion and faith down all of our throats with brute force—because these religious fanatics worship guns as much as their not-so-benevolent patriarchal god that they insist is white, male, and American.
Racial hatred bred by ignorance and an insecurity that allows common thugs to deem themselves superior in desperate hope that someone might actually believe them. Like those who spout bible verses in a pathetic attempt to convince others that they are a decent human being—or a patriot.
Decency has nothing to do with religious faith. And religious faith absolutely does not compel one to do the right thing for their country or to follow the law. Six alt-right-wing members of the Court are absolute proof of that.
The thing is, deep down these folks know to the depth of their vile, corrupt souls that they are not superior to anyone. Because self-loathing is at the core of their beings. Hatred, not love, is the version of “Christianity” touted by those who claim to want to “Make America Great Again.” Great for whom?
These MAGA maggots want America to be brutally hypocritical of its own Constitution again. They want to enslave other races and deem women to be chattel and they want it all wrapped up in a sick, twisted, version of their so-called faith-based patriotism.
A nation built by the torture of human beings was never great. And it will never be as long as the voice of the hateful minority is allowed to spew violent vitriol and stir their bloodbath fantasies as they gun down others with impunity.
The Bill of Rights allows for free exercise of religion and separation of church and state because the former cannot exist without the latter. And free exercise of religion also means we are supposed to be free from religion if we so choose. It’s called free will. That thing Christians claim comes from their god, and yet they want to play god and take it away from anyone who doesn’t believe in lockstep with them.
It wasn’t always so blatantly fascist that this was the aim of fanatics. Because they tend to tout themselves as ultra-patriotic Americans. Except they most decidedly are not.
Five years ago, I was chatting on Facebook with a female second cousin in Texas about how religion was being skewed by these so-called patriots and their far-from-Christlike cult leader. Another very distant male cousin, unknown to me, interloped on our conversation as if it were his god-given right to do so (of course). I answered his bullying babble with, “You are aware the US is a secular nation?”
His reply? “That’s the problem, right there.”
Right then and there it was becoming clear that these willfully ignorant Christian bigots were actually against our democracy and our Constitution. Because not only do they not believe in a well-regulated militia per the Second Amendment, they believe their and only their concept of god should be pervasive in government and every single facet of all American lives.
They believe their “beliefs” are facts.
This didn’t begin yesterday. It’s been a problem in everything from school prayer to blue laws that don’t allow citizens to purchase alcohol on Sundays. Why Sunday? Could it be because it’s the designated Christian day of worship? And who decided it was their right to determine whether anyone drinks booze on Sunday or any other damn day of the week?
That blowhard in Texas who I am unfortunately distantly related to through my matriarchal line is no patriot, and he is far from a benevolent Christian. He’s a pugnacious punk. Insecure and full of hate. Bullying female relatives who dare to be Democrats in Texas.
And for those who like to claim they are the way they are because they were raised that way, like a few more of my relatives down in Texas, I know better, and so does my proud-to-be-a-Democrat mother. Her father, my beloved Pappaw, was able to be both a devout Christian and a kind, funny man who wasn’t racist or full of hate. In fact, he was an advocate for civil rights for all, and for equal rights for women. In a small Texas town.
My Pappaw would be appalled at what is happening in Texas, and across this country. Because he knew the difference between wrong and right, and hate and love.
When you have a majority of justices on SCOTUS who don’t, you have a Constitutional crisis. Those who fail to separate their personal religious beliefs (or agendas) from their jurisprudence are traitors to our nation, to the very foundations of our democracy.
SCOTUS has now flat out ignored the Establishment Clause in its gushing and disgusting embrace of the forced, not free, exercise of their idea of religion, their hate-filled, misogynist, patriarchal platitudes. Their exercise of religion is so “free” that it must force acceptance of Christofascist tenants on the entirety of a population of diverse cultures.
That’s the problem, right there. That the US has dared to be diverse in its beliefs, and its people.
How dare the ignorant hateful white minority no longer be allowed to put its foot on the necks of everyone else and force them to pray to a god that would have them swinging from the nearest tree or executed for a miscarriage? How dare we expect our Supreme Court justices to actually follow the common law and not their own distorted version of canon law?
As an aside, Microsoft Editor really should cease and desist from suggesting that all references to the word god or god-given must be capitalized. Even computer programmers just can’t seem to stop themselves from inserting indoctrinated religious dogma into their work.
This latest 6-3 SCOTUS opinion that will send our tax dollars to religious schools that are freely perpetuating this hate and bigotry with the aim of destroying our public school system because they can’t force their god’s way in is not only in contravention of human rights and the Constitution itself, but is utterly and irrevocably devoid of integrity.
I dedicate this blog post to my second cousin, living in that rural Texas town. She identifies as the “religious left” and is devastated by what is occurring in her state, and her nation. Because it is her nation too, and it is her right to have both faith and progressive politics. I am in awe of her and those who can keep their faith while those around them are destroying the reputation of Christianity in the US, as well as eviscerating the sanctity of our Constitutional rights in the name of a deity in what was supposed to be a secular nation.