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<h1>Religion and government remain a dangerous and volatile mix</h1>
<h3>
By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rick-wingrove/2011/07/28/gIQAorRdiK_page.html" rel="author">Rick Wingrove</a>, <span class="timestamp updated processed">Published: October 11</span>
</h3>
<p><em>Rick Wingrove is the CEO of </em>
<a href="http://beltwayatheists.org/"> Beltway Atheists, Inc,</a>
<em> the Virginia State Director of </em>
<a href="http://www.atheists.org/">American Atheists</a>
<em>, and a contributor to The Washington Post’s </em>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/gIQAyIUWFJ_page.html">local faith leader network</a>.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/christopher-hitchens-a-vanity-fair-writer-was-a-religious-skeptic-and-acerbic-master-of-the-contrarian-essay/2010/12/17/gIQAtiBHxO_story.html">Christopher Hitchens</a>
famously said that “religion poisons everything.” While a thorough
search might turn up technical exceptions to this rule, one of the
things <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/politics-and-religion-of-voters/2012/10/08/ec3f3a66-11bb-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_graphic.html">religion</a> certainly does poison is politics. Poison politics leads to toxic government. </p>
<p>Religious
types have been leaning on government and meddling in elections since
they were thanked for their input and given nice parting gifts by the
authors of the Constitution. The problem for religious ideologues is
this: despite some pretty extraordinary and self serving claims about <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/birth-control-mandate-beyond-our-god-given-rights/2012/02/14/gIQAMhnSDR_blog.html">mandates</a>
and dictates received directly from a micromanaging Bronze Age deity,
the Constitution simply provides no role for religion in the government
of the United States. </p><p>Official endorsement of any religion is
prohibited. Religious tests for elected office are prohibited. The
result of our constitutional non-establishment of religion has been a
system of government that is nominally neutral on religion and which, by
design, provides equal rights, protection, and access to all citizens
regardless of their <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/how-to-tell-if-youre-an-atheist/2012/05/30/gJQADy561U_blog.html">opinions on religion</a>. What could possibly be fairer than that? </p><p>
The
worst elements of religion, however, don’t consider this matter
settled. Rabid fundamentalism, based on biblical literalism, is rampant
in our politics. It would be a tremendous redistribution of the facts
to argue that religious adamancy resides equally on the left and on the
right. The imbalance has grown so great that the right genuinely
believes that the god and creator of the entire universe is a
Republican, that they are entitled to govern, that whatever it takes to
install them permanently in power qualifies as “democracy,” and that
compromise is the work of Satan and entirely out of the question.
Claiming a mandate from a supreme deity is the ultimate untrumpable
hand. </p><p>The result of this intractable ideology is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/13/13-reasons-why-this-is-the-worst-congress-ever/">legislative paralysis</a>
at a time when we could really use some rational solutions. Instead,
democracy is being commandeered and driven into a ditch by those who
would inflict <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/in-missouri-clergy-in-the-fray-of-akin-race-seeing-it-as-start-of-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-gop/2012/10/08/500ab2c4-0eff-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html">faith-based social legislation</a> taken from Leviticus and whose science comes from Genesis.</p>
<p>Doubling
down on mean and ignorant is neither a recipe for success nor the
character of greatness. Science denial will never result in greater
understanding of the workings of the universe. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/god-particle-discovery-is-a-win-for-science-over-superstition/2012/07/11/gJQAQT8NdW_story.html">Science denial</a>
and its siblings math denial, fact denial, and utter disregard for
logic, feed a disturbing resurgence of anti-intellectualism. History
instructs us well on this matter.</p><p>The religion-based denial of
equality and rights for women is a remnant of a life-crushing morality
devised by men who thought the earth was flat. Such <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-the-war-on-women-get-women-into-office/2012/04/27/gIQARFidlT_story.html">cultural misogyny</a> is a declaration of war against the very notions of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. </p>
<p>Religion
proposes equally dire outcomes for gays, people who get tattoos, men
who get haircuts, anyone who works on Sunday, or who eats shellfish. But
the cafeteria religious believers are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/chick-fil-a-president-dan-cathy-bites-into-gay-marriage-debate/2012/07/19/gJQACrvzvW_blog.html">focused like a laser on gays</a> and find prescriptions for hate in their ancient texts.</p>
<p>It
may or may not be unfair to blame every failure of government on
religion when some are likely the outcome of plain vanilla ignorance.
But the right, currently and openly awash in rapturous faith, is
providing a home and a pulpit to the most toxic, coercive, and
repressive elements of religion. </p><p>Government should be a solution
engine, populated by the informed people, focused on outcomes beneficial
to all. The government of the U.S. must never become a tool for the
imposition of religion on the unwilling and the unconvinced. Done by
others, we call it <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/muslim-without-sharia/2012/01/19/gIQApEbIBQ_blog.html">sharia</a>. And Hitchens had exactly that in mind when he called it poison.</p><p> </p>
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<p><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
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