Gay Marriage, God in Schools, Abortion, Partisan Politics – and Does Anyone Remember The Separation of Church and State?

A small reminder of the history of this great nation, folks. It was founded on a little concept called ‘the separation of church and state’. And there were a number of reasons… in short, a government predicated on a specific brand of faith is in direct opposition to the concept of religious freedom that we supposedly hold so dear. It’s the reason that we live in a society where people of all faiths (supposedly) co-exist in harmony. Catholics, Methodists, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, even those damn Jehova’s Witnesses; living, working, socializing side by side. So why is it that religious beliefs have gradually worked their way back into mainstream politics?

So many of the issues that decide elections from year to year are based on religious beliefs. Gay marriage, for example. Why are we fighting this? Even Rush Limbaugh himself has got to realize that the outcome of this war is predetermined…. in the not too distant future, homosexuals will be permitted to marry in the united states. Yet the conservative right wing fights on, because it is the ‘right’ thing to do. Any republican on the conventional side of the fence will tell you that marriage is intended to be between a man and a woman. And where does that theory originate? Not with society. Society accepted homosexuality years ago. As much as our staunch republicans may hate the fact, the gay folks are here, and not going anywhere. Yet they persist on attempting to impose their own religious beliefs onto American society as a whole.

Abortion is another issue which harbors religious implications. The issue isn’t one of godliness, yet those opposed will nearly always cite reasons based in theology as their justification of their stance on the issue. On major issues, we seem to have decided in recent years that it is more than acceptable to allow religion to play a part in our decision making. With Sarah Palin and her like waving the flag of faith as a political tool, it doesn’t seem like it’s slowing down, either. We need to get back to the basics, and remember what exactly the men who founded this country were looking for.

It is difficult to enact a separation at this point. Politics has become so entrenched and corrupted by monopolist bi partisanship that change has become nearly impossible. Everything comes down to which side of the aisle an issue lies on today… Supreme Court Justices are selected based on it, votes are made based on it. Somehow, America has corrupted its own system of democracy. And the reason is simple… we accept it. The popular media offers us two selections in nearly every decision we make, and we assume that because they tell us that those are our choices, that they in fact are. we have lost our ability to think for ourselves, or in the least to do anything about it. We do complain…. those unhappy with ‘liberal’ Obama crave the conservative, while those unhappy with the ‘conservative’ Bush demanded the liberal. We were tired of one end of the spectrum, didn’t like it, and so we ran to the other end. We made this mess.

We can’t decide what we want, or what we believe. We have become so accustomed to having the majority of our decisions made for us that we no longer really know how to do it ourselves. We allow our views on gays to be dictated by God, then throw him out of our schools. We allow abortion in some places, not others, and all the while conduct executions and allow torture. We scream at those who kill us for our beliefs, yet don’t mind sacrificing our children for oil.

We haven’t lost sight of our beliefs… we simply don’t know what our beliefs are any more. Perhaps it’s time we started. Maybe, if all of us looked into ourselves, and discovered what it is we believe in, we wouldn’t be such a mess. Being an American used to mean you believed in freedom. The freedom to choose who you wanted to be. The freedom to live in a society where all were accepted. Not that long ago, we awoke from our ignorance and granted rights to black people and women. Now, we oppress again. Where does it end? When do we remember what it truly means to be American? I pray I’m wrong, but I fear that day may not come again. How sad.