47-The Church and the State Part II

Part 2: A Future Cleansed and Satisfied By Justice

In private, there are few limits to one's prejudice; in public, there are many. Businesses are legally established entities. The idea a person engaged in business has the right to refuse service to an old person, a short person, a religious person, or a wheelchair-bound, blind, pregnant, black, Jewish woman is settled law. No matter what the proprietor thinks or feels, protected classes are not subject to debate. If one cannot conduct business without prejudice, one must find something else to do; there is no Constitutional right to do whatever regardless of how it affects others. However, we all have the right to sit in our basement and blog about all the hate in our hearts. 

An example of what the Indiana law lacked that the Utah law does not is the stipulation that if a government official objects to providing a service, a replacement must be provided who will. Indiana joins the Mormons and a certain southern governor with ears to hear. They're still trying to stay ahead of the game. But don't let them know how far behind they are; we don't want them doing anything rash.

Fact: bad ideas eventually fail. Example: for a very long time, it was common knowledge that one must avoid too much black-bile, the clear cause of melancholy and cancer. Today, who's even heard of black-bile or ever uses the word melancholy, the literal translation of 'black-bile'? This idea didn't pan out. On the other hand, the truth about cancer is real and complex. We now know cancer is not a single disease but results from a concert of maladies. Truth persists as fiction does its best to maintain a relevant story. As long as scientific, rational data illuminates the darkness, superstitions will continue to evaporate because nature resists ignorance as such mutations rarely enhance survivability.

This disturbing trend of the church penetrating the state, using the state to establish a special set of laws for the church, and separating the people into a strata of privilege cannot last forever. Eventually, the bending arch of justice, the changing demographics, and the dying off of the calcified-minded will led the US in new directions. Diversity is the greatest thing about America. America's history is as unique among the nations as its culture. Although one might point to specific (Christian) characteristics of this culture at this moment, individual facts are not the truth, only footnotes in history. 

The dynamic nature of American culture is its greatest asset. No single people or person represents what an American is or is not. The homogeneous, heterosexual, Christian, white man's time has come; the new majority craves variety. As long as laws like these exist, we starve. To satisfy this hunger, first let us reject the penetration and reestablish the separation so we might freely dine on the healthy parts. After all, even racoons are wise enough to wash the taint from their food before they eat.