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The system was designed to resist things like this. Tyrants and zealots cannot hold more power than the normal people.
The system's not immune of course, but enough people would oppose anything resembling a theocracy that I firmly believe there is no need to worry. Maybe some religious laws passed in the next few years that allow con artists under the guise of religion to take money and invest in some polished tax shelters, but religious liberty is almost certainly not in any real jeopardy.
It really seems like things are starting to snowball in that direction. From the ruling that taxpayer money can now fund religious schools to Kentucky's new law putting the Bible back in school, I really think we are headed to a Baptist theocracy in this country, or at least in the South.
Question is, how far will they go? Will evolution be banned from science classes and be replaced with curriculum written by Ken Ham? Will US History classes be taught with David Barton's curriculum, which teaches that America was founded and built by Baptists and the First Amendment only applies to Protestant Christianity?
Under Trump, the religious right as the most empowered it has been since Jerry Falwell's prime in the 1980s.
I really feel marriage equality isn't long for the world. Roe v Wade could be on its way out as well, or at least there could be some unprecedented restrictions placed on it.
What do you think?
I think we're headed towards some trying times, but do I expect a full blown Iran-style Christian Republic of America? I don't think so. I think the Religious Right is going to make a very strong push but demographics are against them. Go to a church anywhere in America and well over half of the people there will be over 70. Maybe the special Spanish languages masses at Catholic churches will be younger but Hispanics don't vote for the Ted Cruz style Republicans that support creating a Christian theocracy. That said, in the "Bible Belt" and in heavy Republican areas things are going to get really hairy as they get increasingly desperate to maintain power in an America that is becoming less and less White, and more and more secular.
It's going to be a close run thing and a nailbiter for another 15-20 years but White Christian America is done. Trump's election was the swan song.
The ruling didn't say that religious schools could be funded. It said nothing more than how things long have been.
Yeah, the ruling was about letting a church apply for a grant to cover their playground with recycled tires.
If you really stretch, you can interpret this ruling as supporting religion. You can also interpret it as the government being interested in protecting the knees of religious kids as well as non-religious kids.
There are plenty of folks who'd like to enshrine their version of jesus as a permanent member of the president's cabinet, and they are certainly feeling their oats right now. But OP, you should know that many christians are not comfortable with that idea. Let alone the rest of us.
I think in the long run the US will remain a secular government. Because, as any member of a religious minority knows, a secular government is a religious person's best bet.
We do have a theocracy, its called collectivism, the religion that believes that real human beings must be subjugated for the sake of the fictional collective. The religion of State.
Actually, pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, et cetera, of bona fide church organizations (including Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, and such) have always been tax exempt and fully able to preach all the politics they want without ever having to apply for non-profit tax exemption. Bona fide churches have never actually had to apply for tax exemption--their tax exempt status predates the Constitution itself. They just have to look and act enough like a conventional church to win the legal case if the IRS ever claimed they weren't really a "church."
Non-profit tax exemption allows religious organizations that wouldn't win a court case proving them to be a bona fide church to be exempt from taxes, and under the Johnson Amendment in that case they must also refrain from explicit political activities.
So this recent move does not give new permission for bona fide churches to practice politics--they've always had that liberty.
It gives "church-ish" non-profits the ability to practice politics.
The fundamentalist Baptists' end-game is a world where women are forced to stay in the home, cannot work outside of special circumstances, cannot use birth control, and must have a "quiverfull" of children.
They don't want abortions but they don't want to fund someone's else life choices and they don't want birth control, well they are going to start humping furniture because there's no way they will be able to have sex.
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