Religion as Government is a Path to Hell

This is a short essay written around the time of the Terri Schavio debacle and the funeral of Pope John Paul II.



In modern times religion can provide a moral anchor amongst hyper consumerism, greed and the attitude of "take care of me and my own". However there was a reason why the founders of our great country wanted to keep religion separate from government. Simply put religion as government does not work. In the Muslim world we see extremist religious governments maintain policies from the middle ages, women are treated as second class citizens, punishment for minor crimes can lead to dismemberment of body parts and minority religions are not tolerated. In our own country we see how religion as government does not make sense.

I have been patiently waiting for someone in our so called "liberal" media to point out the hypocrisy of the Religious Right's position on "life" issues. Here we have a situation where Florida's Republican government wanted to "save" Terri Schavio yet this same group of Republicans do not support stem cell research. How can this be? Stem cell research WILL lead to cures for brain damage and spinal injuries, these are the very cures that can heal someone like Terri Shavio. Now they want me to believe that our Federal Court system is full of "activist" judges, yet these judges are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, they are providing a balance and division of power between the three main bodies of government. We see the Republican party do NOTHING to increase the quality of health care, on the contrary they are on a mission to protect insurance companies and large health care providers from law suits, even though the medical association has stated repeatedly that this will have no affect on health care costs. The only way Terri Shavio has been able to afford her health care is from a law suit that she won against a hospital for not recognizing a serious imbalance of chemicals in her body and now the Republicans want to limit the amount someone can win in a malpractice law suit.

This same group of self proclaimed religious zealots recently passed a law that will make it easier for people to shoot each other "in self-defense" and God's gift to mankind Jeb Bush is pro death penalty. It seems the Republican party is picking and choosing what aspects of religion work for them and ignoring the rest. What a disgusting mockery it is to see the pro-war pro-death Bush clan kneel in front of MY Pope. Catholic is derived from the Latin word "catholicus" which means "universal. In other words the Catholic Church, as demonstrated by Pope John Paul II, aims to love and save ALL of humanity regardless of religious beliefs. So how can it be that the pro-corporate, pro-American, anti-everybody else Republican party is now considered "religious" yet the pro-worker and pro-health care Democrats are citizens of Sodom? Who is more evil the guy who pretends to be religious but acts like the devil or the guy who says he is not religious yet his acts are more in line with the teachings of Christ?

Let's all go back to the beginning of this country, have a little faith in our founders and keep religion and government separate. Despite good intentions the path of religion as government leads to hell.