WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?

COMMENTARY

DEFEND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

PRIVATE RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION –YES (IF YOU NEED IT). PUBLIC FUNDING-NO


Let us face it there has been a deep and sustained retrogression of progressive human thought over the last generation or so. Apparently the progressive goals of the Enlightenment have run out of steam and night has fallen over much of human thought. And not for the first time. Remember the Middle Ages. In many ways militant leftists are reduced to a flat-out defense of those values that in an earlier time we thought were merely the base-line from which human progress would surge. The fight against religious obscurantism represented by the key fight to separate church and state in order to make religious expression, at most, a personal expression was one of those important values. We are definitely back on the base-line on this one.

Why do I bring this up now? A glance at the news on any given day brings forth new horrors done in the name of religion. And these actions most certainly are not to defend the right to personal religious expression. Name the religion-Christianity, Judaism, Islamism, Hinduism, etc., and the fundamentalists are spearheading the drive to impose their religions on the body politic- weapons in hand. Damn, even the Hari Krishnas are getting belligerent these days. What has got this writer’s blood pressure up today, however, is the erosion of the principle of separation of church and state in this country.

A recent newspaper article really brought this point home. Apparently a town in the suburbs of Houston, Texas is the capital of the religious building boom. And town administrators, although they do not apparently know what to do about it, are not happy. This small town has 51 churches, temples, shines, whatever, all exempt from local property tax laws. All it seems you need to set up shop there is to have been directed there by god. Curious, very curious. Shinto, Hindu, 12th Day Adventist, Jainist it doe not matter. Apply and you are in. The town administrator in charge of permits, bewildered by it all, sees no way out in the face of god’s wrath. Let us help him.

To answer our befuddled Texas town public official. Here is the word. Tell your applicants this- If you want your storefront or shopping mall church- pay up. No more tax exemptions. Hey, remember this country was founded on a principle of free private religious expression- in the gathered churches of those times you paid your own way. Where the hell did we go wrong?

Religion is deeply embedded in the human psyche. No question about that. As long as humankind fought against the mysterious forces of nature, for the most part unsuccessfully, a religious explanation for humankind’s plight made some sense. And certainly it was no worst than some other explanations. However, as humankind through science, technology and more sophisticated organization of society began to tame nature that rationale lost its force. That is where the ideas of the Enlightenment began to come into there own. Religion, if necessary, became a personal expression of citizens in a secular society. Or, at least, for the past couple of centuries we thought that is where we were heading. We are duty-bound to start that fight all over again. Why? If one recalls the last time that religious fundamentalism motivated human thought was ascendant was during medieval times. That used to be called the Dark Ages. And, brothers and sisters, that lasted for a long time. Forward, again.