The German philosopher Karl Marx in not so many words said that "Religion is the Opium of the People" in the early 1820s. Part of his motivation was that his family was jewish and had to convert to protestantism to seek better acceptance in German society at the time. The other motivation is he believed that what is fundamentally real about the world is not ideas and concepts but material forces; that economic realities are the determining factor for all human behavior; that all of human history is that of class struggle between the Have's and the Have not's. In a word he believed that religion poisoned the masses and distracted them from the real issues which are all materialistic.I do not believe that the Founding Fathers meant by the "Separation of Church and State" to actually vilify and abolish religion, like Marx did, on the contrary they meant to protect religious beliefs; but nowadays you would think they meant the opposite by watching all that is being done under the pretext of this separation: Renaming Christmas and the Christmas tree; removing God from the pledge of allegiance and other core documents and national slogans, abolishing prayer in schools etc.
Marx blamed religion for distracting people form materialistic reality and class struggle between those who have and those who don't. Do we really want to do the same and have people staunchly refocus on everything material and on what they do not have or do not have enough of? Marx's approach led to communism. Is that what we want in America?
The truth is that humans need to believe in something bigger than themselves because they need hope in their lives. Even Marx gave them the Red Paradise to believe in. One of the byproducts of this Dechristianization could very well be the all too numerous incomprehensible massacres we have been witnessing (Aurora, Newtown, Virginia, Columbine and others). There maybe mental illness but there also maybe loss of hope and the kind of moral compass that one can only get from one spiritual self. NOBODY is commenting about the latter. Everybody is busy blaming the guns which is the most superficial part of this epidemic that we are experiencing.
The growing effort to laicize society is said to come from the concern about making sure that all religions have equal opportunity expression. How is that achieved, in a Democracy where majority supposedly rules, by squashing the largest one of them at the benefit of the others?
As Liberals are endeavoring slowly but surely to remove all signs and visible activities of Christianity in public life à la marxism (which they probably believe in to start with), what will happen if less prevalent religions will thrive in America especially the more aggressive and ever expanding ones like Islam? As it is, a going number of citizens feeling disenfranchised seem to flock to this religion, seeking structure and reason in their lives. So let us analyze for a second how compatible is Islam with Liberal beliefs in this country: Muslims do not believe in separation of church and state, in women's equal rights, or in contraception or abortion; they believe in Sharia Law; and it goes on an on. By wittingly or not helping Islam be more visible in American society, at the detriment of Christianity, aren't the Liberals shooting themselves in the foot? Do they realize what they are doing? The Holy Koran rejects the separation of church and state as Islam is the only Law; so as it inevitably becomes more prominent in American society, what will happen? A Muslim United States of America?
Can the Liberals look around the world and tell us which of the Muslim States they would like our country to be molded after: Syria? Egypt? Iran? Saudi Arabia? There is a plethora of very dubious choices! Turkey maybe the only plausible choice but it is starting to lean the other way. I come from a partly Muslim country Lebanon and the main reason it has maintained and protected western civil liberties is because of the Christian part.
As the wise man (or woman) said: Be Careful What You Wish For!
