The Separation and Penetration of Church into State
By Jaxon Cohen
Part 1: The Problem
Centuries ago, a few Europeans fled a world where church and state were one. They sought religious freedom, but not the kind inculcating America today, the kind that says we're free to break a few laws in order to practice our beliefs. Instead, their idea was freedom from having to practice the state's beliefs. The attempt to remove the church from the state proceeded along the theory that the state must not favor one set of beliefs over another. The separation of church from state frees all religions to worship with integrity. Therefore, calling America a Christian nation is an affront to the founding principle of this country and an insult to every non-Christian American. The US is explicitly defined as secular, meaning church and state are separate with all persons equal before the law.
Nations are populated by majorities and minorities. As the historical, Christian, white, male majority of this nation slides into the ranks of the minority, they fight the inevitable in every conceivable way. Redistricting, the criminalization of poverty, voter fraud laws, the incarceration of the ethnic male, campaign financing, cable news echo chambers, the widening wealth gap, and the growing ability of the cooperation to protect its members from prosecution are just a few examples of how this privileged clique clings to power. But as the clock ticks, this weakened majority becomes a solid minority and will have to stand on the value of their positions instead of their former position of value. And when the future majority rises, change will come from all directions. Will the one-percent shatter the populace or the populace shatter the one-percent? Whatever happens, the money-game won't protect 'the man' forever. The only useful question becomes: what's the total cost of resisting the new norm?
Of all the things the traditional majority has done, none is more un-American, more unconstitutional than the attempt to remove rights and privileges from select groups in the name of religion. The idea LGBT couples cannot marry because it threatens marriage is nonsensical and illogical. The very notion women do not have the right of biological determination is a non-starter. The victories of the mid-twentieth century took decades (even centuries) to accomplish. The cost was great but the result was too.
Because of these strides, future attempts to target a group for discrimination can no longer be carried out openly. Jim Crow is dead. Instead, laws are crafted in angelic costumes, inhabited by demons. Legislative authors will the church beyond protected-class status; they want more than equality with the LGBT community; they will make the Church the exempt class. If the church is going to seamlessly insert itself into the state, they require the Ark fill with lawyers, lobbyists, and legislators, three by three. The strategy is no longer drafted from a position of offense but instead defense.
