America's Godly Heritage

This title may not bring in the kind of numbers that that preacher from Houston does, but.....

Seriously, I was reading Greg's blog over at the Parish where he has a really interesting discussion on what the church could be. At the same time, I have been mulling over an email from a conservative evangelical detailing how our religious freedom is "under attack" and explaining that the words "separation of church and state" are not in the Constituion.

It is old news, at least for me. I remember very well receiving a video from an aquaintance that featured David Barton on why America was Godly at one time and then ceased to be (right about the time they took prayer out of schools and stopped forcing gay people into closets).

So, I have been thinking about this for a long time. I am a historian, of sorts. I know that our nation has a complicated religious history--and that our founders were complicated men who had religious ideas that we would both recognize and find odd.

But we do know that they decided on a Constitution that doesn't mention God. This is no accident. These people understood the problems of monarchy and of theocracy. They knew that mixing church and state ends up hurting both. Church becomes more institutionalized (eh, Greg?) and state finds itself picking between competing faiths. Better to have a secular government and let the faith run free. And run free it does. To Branch Davidians and Lakewood Baptist Church. From compounds and towers to ginormous church structures in America's suburbs.

I am asking why this isn't enough for my conservative evangelical friends? They are represented in the White House, Senate and House--with friends on the high court. They are on every corner--on every twist of the AM dial, and woven into our very political and cultural fabric. Yet they are mad about, what, a stone monument to the Ten Commandments? Or taking the phrase "Under God" out of our already fascist-leaning pledge?

I know why this bugs me. Christians seem to get worked up about the silliest shit. I have yet to see conservative evangelicals march to protest poverty, or to protect the environment, but they will turn out in huge numbers to support Mel's twisted vision, or bus themselves to Alabama to support an arrogant and twisted judge. Why will they boycott Disney over same-sex benifits, but turn a blind eye to toys made by children? It isn't the outrage that bothers me, it is the priority.