Government Mandated Religion is Socialism
In governments of the past. from the tribal leaders and fiefdoms to the republics and dictatorships which sprung up across the globe over the last 2000 years there has always been a mingling of what the people thought of their version of God and how they should be govern.
In the carnal sense, even since the times of the first pyramids, the comingling of the Ruling Class and the Deity have been widely known and accepted as such that if one of their society where to question the validity of such they would have been strung up for treason on the spot.
Luckliy, we have had the benefit of time that has tested and exhausted that theory of rulers being Gods to worship. Most poignantly, over a course of 400 years of what is known in the Western world as the Age of Enlightenment (1450AD – 1850AD) this was put to the test, revolutions were caused by the rejection of such, and new countries formed out of the carnage of fallible men ruling mankind. The problem that was in this line of governmental philosophy was that those in power became that to be worshipped. And we know when there is absolute power, it corrupts absolutely.
Only when the personification of God was taken out of the Ruler him or her self and given it’s proper place; that of a guiding light to the masses was a righteous government brought into any resemblence of justice and equity. God is the higher plane that mankind aspires to. When it is brought down making the infallible, fallible, yet having the air of infallibility, that is when you run into problems.
Religion and its coupling of spirituality with goodness is the guide on the side, the rule of thumb, the ideal to work towards. When placed on a sure foundation, Religion can inspire great works of good men. Where they strive to achieve that which is higher than themselves but only for a moment. Moments of valor, of mercy, of love, of kindness, of Charity, of bravery… yea all matter of Godliness personified by the Providence in which they have been taught.
Our Founding Fathers of our great nation, built upon this most sure foundation. No other religious persuasion, buddhist, musselman (islamist), Hindi, Sikh etc. have come close to doing good for goodness’ sake as has the Judeo Christian Theology. In fact it was this line of thinking, that inspire Locke to write the treatise of Liberty, and Justice that took hold of Adams, Jefferson, Hancock, Paine and the rest. They built this nation, that would uphold such precepts and be guided by what was taught in the Bible.
As we have found out, they knew that you cannot legislate goodness, the people need to want to do it for the sake of it all in front of God, not because it is decreed to be so by their representatives in government. When Government endeavors to usurp the role of religion, it ceases to possess any goodness because of the compulsatory nature that government naturally wields. When someone is forced to be good, to be kind, it is to make it inefffectual, and damning to those involved.
The roles then that inherently befall onto religion and religious organizations; That of taking care of the poor among them, the needy, the naked, the infirm etc. are in and of themselves a good thing. And as long as they remain in this area, this level of consciousness, this level of doing good for just the sake of doing so, then it is uplifting, healing, and soul-satisfying.
Once this is placed under status, or policies, or quotas, or bureaucratic oversight of government that is when it corrupts the soul, and damns the progression of those it is imposed upon. Can one not see how Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society supplanted the roles of family and of parents and made them dependant upon what others dictated to them by decree instead of what they were inspired by Providence to do?
Government programs which search to lighten the burden of an individual by taking the accountability and responsibility out of the equation only serves up jealousies, envyings and strifes of the have’s and have-not’s. And this my friends is the system spoken of in the Communist Manifesto written by Engels and Marx. Tried in various concoctions by peoples who thought the forcing of good deeds was better than freedom of agency to choose the good over that which is evil. The forcing of which is in and of itself is the basest form of evil. Doomed to failure because of it’s nature of force and compulsion.
By no means will it ever be successful. No matter what the philosophers say. It only can be forced into functioning for a time, spent into a form of “life-support” as the Soviets did, or because of no other options be tolerated as in the case of Cuba. It cannot be self sustaining because Government mandated religion is Socialism forcing one’s will upon another. Which never can remain forever without corporal opporession of the essence of humanity which is the will to choose for itself.