I saw these on Facebook and a chill ran over me. Is this what we want?
And if so, who says what kind of holy? (Definition:
dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.) Apart from the fact that we are a society with many people, some religious and some not, whose definition of holy are we talking about? There's the Roman Catholic religious purity the Inquisition sought to impose on all in Spain and the New World; the Puritan tenets that were imposed on England during Cromwell's time; there's Sharia law; there's the rigid tenets of Orthodox Judaism -- I could go on.
If we were talking about the Native American belief that the Earth is holy and not to be defiled, I might be able to get behind that. But I have a Real Feeling that the fella who posted these is talking about a Christian sort of holy. Even if the USA is predominately Christian -- that's no mandate for imposing a Christian world view on everyone. And even if those Christians could agree on the rules, a look at the dissension within various denominations suggests that an agreement would be unlikely. The mere fact that there are denominations points up the lack of agreement. And then there's that word MAKE. There's a suggestion of force or coercion in that word that sends me right back to the Spanish Inquisition -- and the Taliban. Last of all, Make America Holy AGAIN.
When was this time that America was holy? The Salem Witch Trials? The long years when most Christian churches supported slavery or segregation or Jim Crow laws? The glory years of burning crosses? Of punishing adulterers? I'd really like to understand the mindset of the people who support this notion. Or if they understand what it would be like to live in a theocracy. And how that's exactly where this simple-minded slogan points.
