For many uninformed Americans, this article will become a story filled with blasphemy. However, the truth is undeniable when emotions are removed from the facts. My story is based on historical facts which you must read to understand. I am not anti-religious for anyone else, I am anti-religion for me.
This is not about most people you and I know who are legitimately religious: people whose faith is not just a part of their lives, it is what they practice daily without thought. It is who they are. I admire them and would do anything necessary to protect their First Amendment rights. However, religious extremists are not spiritual people. They are selective, choosing certain words, sentences, and paragraphs that are aligned with the hatred they feel for others who do not share their vile and baseless personal beliefs. Racists and bigots have obviously never read the New Testament of the Bible, the Quran, or the Torah, which are historical accounts of the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mohammad, and the leaders of the most ancient major religion of all, Judaism.
Religious extremism results in a spread of anger, hatred, and violence harming and murdering innocents. Their excuse is always the same: “It’s God’s will.” That’s a blatant lie.
Yesterday was the 21st remembrance of the cowardly attacks on September 11, 2001. This attack on our nation was planned, organized, and executed by Muslim religious extremists, not by true believers of the Prophet Mohammad.
Throughout history wars, murders, and all forms of violent attacks on other humans were founded primarily on extremist religious beliefs. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the terrorist wars against non-Muslim countries by Islamic extremists are all based on a twisted interpretation of Christianity and the Religion of Islam.
The entertainment industry offered an unrealistic view of the Crusades. These were violent and unnecessary wars that caused the deaths of as many as five million men, women, and children between 1095 and 1291. They were called the “Holy Wars,” but I find nothing “holy” about the idea of killing others to ‘save their souls.’
A ‘religious war’ is defined as the ‘ultimate expression of religious intolerance.’ In 21st-century America, there is a ‘religious war’ as active as the crusades and could become nearly as bloody.
In 1789 our Founding Fathers signed the Constitution of the United States of America. They were divided about many of the issues and ideas in the final rendering of ‘The Law of the Land,’ with the exception of the First Amendment. The primary reason most of these men left England to create a new nation was ‘religious intolerance.’ When King George III declared the Anglican Church as the one true religion of the British Empire, this was “the last straw.” Their king had become an autocrat whose goal was to remove individual freedom, and individual thought from his subjects.
First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The first part is of utmost importance. It simply states that no citizen of the United States can be forced to belong to a religion or persecuted for rejecting all religions. This prevents the placement of a single religion in a more relevant position in our government than all others. Therefore, the preference given to the Christian Religious Right by right-wing politicians is a direct violation of the First Amendment and there is no deniability attached to this fact. On one of America’s darkest days, June 24, 2022, when the most biased Supreme Court in history removed the right of all women to make decisions about their own physical and mental health, this was a violation of the First Amendment and a declaration of a new ‘crusade’ against women in America in support of the CRR.
Several political issues would never have existed without the interference of extremists from a single religion. The best known are abortion and same-sex marriage. One of the justices on the Supreme Court today is one of those religious extremists and why she should have been disqualified from receiving a seat on the Court: Amy Coney Barrett.
I hope you will agree that I have not displayed religious favoritism in this article. I continue to believe that most men and women who practice their religious faith are sincere. However, many of the leaders of these religions have used their power over others for personal reasons and ambitions far beyond those intended by their God. All power corrupts absolutely.
By James Turnage, Novelist
Sources:
Havard Divinity Bulletin: Does Religion Cause Violence?
Pew Research Center: Religious Extremism
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of David Shankbone‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of joey zanotti’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Discover more from Guardian Liberty Voice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.