Monday, April 09, 2007

Manifest Destiny: The Crusaders in the Capitol

This is my response to the "Blog Against Theocracy" blogswarm that I missed this weekend. Please check out all the entries by following the link.

(Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors designed the "Blog Against Theocracy" logo.)

When a government is allowed to hold its people hostage at the end of a crusader's sword, assembling armies of red-tie legislators and black-robed judges, spouting totalitarian, pseudo-religious, master race moral superiority, it is our own moral imperative to draw a line in the sand and hold it. Manifest Destiny may have been a convenient excuse to build this country, but it is a weak and insecure administration that uses a land grab policy as a way to take control of the moral compass line we toe.

I used to think that Americans were smart enough to know when this type of abuse of might had gone too far. I always thought there were enough of us who saw through political demagoguery to know the difference between political pandering and god-awful policy. It seems I was wrong.

Even the changes in Congress last year are only a burp, more about Iraq than anything related to God and morals.

The problem is we count on politicians to do right by us much in the same way some parents expect their children's teachers to parent their kids. It is a responsibility we cannot, must not, abdicate to those in power. They will only do as much as they can get away with, and maybe slightly more if there's enough money involved.

God, like good character, starts in the home, not on Capitol Hill. Like past mistakes, one's feelings toward God should inform one's actions, not control them. If those who would put our necks to the sword could understand that, perhaps they would stop trying to control the rest of us.

-PBG