To Achieve Ordered Liberty, Governance and Religion Have to be Kept Apart

We begin with a quote from a great American jurist. Chief Justice Warren Burger of the Supreme Court (1969-1986) said: "Ever since people began living in tribes and villages, they have had to balance order with liberty. Individual freedom had to be weighed against the need for security for all."

Lofty words uttered by Burger in his capacity as Chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1987). That Constitution has massively influenced the separation between governance and religion. Its First Amendment, the first of ten Amendments. In their collectivity, they are called "The Bill of Rights," which were ratified in December 1791.

Here follows what the First Amendment states:
 "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 rights of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievance."

In the same vein, the UN Charter, as agreed in San Francisco in June 1945, reiterated the need for not taking religion as a criterion in human affairs. Its Article I, paragraph 3 reads as follows:
"To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, language, or religion."

The provisions above represent the summit of values to be observed by all societies and nations with one objective in mind: Keep faith in your heart, not on your sleeve. Don't brandish your religion as a global measure for approved human interaction. It does not work. Faith is not subject to negotiation or compromise. But man-made policies are concrete human products which are subject to alteration, negotiation, and accommodation.

That is where evangelism fails that global test. It claims some mythical superiority as regards to "human salvation." Salvation is for the hereafter not for the "now." The road to "the hereafter" is chosen by personal selection. But the road to "the now" is dictated by changing circumstances.

How is "evangelism" defined? Here is a general wording for it, not to denigrate it, but to keep it out of the global march towards international cooperation. Here is a reading of its omnibus meaning:
"Evangelic is teaching of the Gospel. Mainly in line of the Protestant school maintaining that the essence of the Gospel consists in the doctrine of salvation by faith. Also by good works and sacraments having no saving efficacy."

But evangelicals, otherwise knows as "the Christian Right" put God in the voting booth!! Their premier American spokesman is Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. In September 2018, he boasted of the organizing power of the Christian Nationalist movement. That was at the Values Voters Summit where he wrongly predicted the failure of the Blue Wave (the capture by the Democrats of either or both the House and the Senate).

But his prediction was gone with the wind at the mid-term elections of Nov. 6. The Democrats, gaining nearly 40 new seats, have gained the House of Representatives. Reed's prophecy of "They (the Democrats) are going to be more shocked than they were the last time (2016)." Reed's prophetic utterance was as faulty as that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt which claimed "legitimacy" in spite of the massive Egyptian crowds in June 2013 calling for it to disappear (IRHAL).

No amount of dollars spent by the Christian Nationalist movement in support of their choice for president, Trump, could avert the blue coup against the fascism of "America First" (America Uber Alles). It is estimated that movement, relying on an extensive network of conservative pastors, within the so-called "Family Research Council" had invested $18 million in 2018, up from $10 million in 2016, and $5 million in 2014.

The entire evangelical movement, which goes by various names including "Watchmen on the Wall," represents a regression from the Constitutional provision for separation between Church and State. Some of its by products are the walls represented by Muslim bans; but also by the barbed wire walls deployed at America's southern border against Central American asylum seekers.

At a rally in the State of Montana, Trump, the product of the concoction of political/evangelist/right, described that new wire wall as "the beautiful barbed wire." With military forces deployed at those borders to, ostensibly to block those migrants from "invading" the US, the cost is expected to reach $200 million. There is no specific budgetary allocation for that. But the out of control Commander In Chief (Trump) needed that foolish deployment as a political stunt.

In this lawless environment of the Trump era which is underpinned by evangelism, it is no surprise to hear J.C. Church, Watchmen on the Wall's national director to preach before November 6: "The No. 1 thing anybody can give you is the Supreme Christ. But the second greatest thing we can give this generation is the Supreme Court." Thus the evangelical needle is threaded to go from the voter, to Trump, to Congress, to the Supreme Court (as could be evidenced by the elevation of Kavanaugh to the 9th seat of the Supreme Court. What a difference between the Supreme Court of Burger and that of Roberts where 5 conservatives are aligned against 4 liberals. Kavanaugh has advocated the equivalency of "the President is above the law."

The degree of the popular rejection of the thesis of the evangelicals in the November mid-term elections could be measured by the lamentation of one of their leaders. Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition told a pastors' meeting: "If we lose three seats to progressives, the whole Congress could be lost."

With this background of the marriage between faith and politics in view, it is no surprise to find the mindless President Trump, the creatures feature of that unconstitutional betrothal sulking in Paris at the 100th anniversary of World War I. Not only is he confronted by a hostile House of Representatives where articles of impeachment are already being considered. His elevation of "nationalism" over globalism has been forcefully rejected by this host, France's president Macron.

"Patriotism is one's love of country. Nationalism is hate of the other," said Macron with support of German Chancellor Merkel. To Trumpism, Macron and Merkel are the past. Putin and Kim Jong-Un are the future. The false dawn, as the Arabs say, that prods the human caravan to resume its trek, only to be enveloped later in total darkness.

So what do houses of worship do in the face of American law preventing them from campaigning for political causes? Otherwise they may lose their tax exemption status!! Leaders of the Christian nationalists are struggling to find a way out of this legal dilemma.

To their rescue, comes pastor Tami Fitzgerald. "I am telling you, you can talk about issues all day long as a pastor; you can tell people who you are going to vote for," She intoned. "But you must not publish that information in a church newsletter or state it from the pulpit."

Sheer chicanery -legal trickery, sophistry. Freedom of speech of the Constitution's First Amendment cannot overwhelm the injunction against "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Evangelism, by its advocacy and operational intent, is establishing a political religious order -an enabler of a regressive political chaos, otherwise called "Trumpism!!"