Religion and Politics

If you really get into politics the same way you are into basketball, it becomes clear that politics is about more than elections and serving in offices.

The basis of politics is in economic theory and philosophy - often the great economists were also philosophers and vice versa. For centuries, the great philosophers and scientists were religious figures and leaders as well.

Newton was devoutly religious to the point of being strange.

Mendel, who formulated our understanding of genetics, was a monk.

For centuries, the Church WAS effectively the government. Those philosophers who weren't part of the Church were dealt with harshly by the Church as heretics, in many cases. Galileo is an obvious one, and Pythagoras was burned at the stake.

The first people who came to America, the Pilgrims and others, all were fleeing religious persecution in their homelands. In England, Henry the VIII famously wanted many wives and to be able to divorce, so he declared a whole new religion, the Anglican Church, as the only allowable state religion in England.

So there is a deep history of Church as State, our people came here for religious freedoms, the Constitution ultimately protects those freedoms (misconstrued as separation of church and state in implementation, tho), and politics. Not just here, the relationships are quite similar in Europe and in Africa and in Asia and in the Middle East.

I cannot begin to get into it in this short message board post, but I hope it gets you thinking about it the way I understand it.

 

Where to begin.

Our laws are based upon English Common Law, not specifically Christian laws; the exception is Louisiana whose laws are based upon French Common Law.

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantees the free exercise of Religion and forbids the implementation of something along the lines of the Anglican Church (official state religion). It does not speak to stomping out religion.

The basis of Civil Rights comes from Religion.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/06/b87308.html

The practice of Slavery, and initially indentured servitude, was a Secular thing - see the East India Tea Company and others.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~colonialamerica/coloniallife.html

The United States started out as (and still is) an experiment in Democracy. Though we may have done some really bad things along the way, we've hopefully been making progress - to the point a black man has a very real chance of being elected president (and one has served as Secy. of State and a black woman, too).

You may want to look at your own state, where all those nifty Spanish Missions are landmarks. The Spaniards came to the New World for reasons other than religious freedom - GOLD! They massacred every Native American they came in contact with in that pursuit, from Mexico (Aztecs) to the Caribbean.

I know all about the bad things done in the name of religion by people. You might have mentioned the Spanish Inquisition, too, or the Crusades, or the burning of the Library of Alexandria (twice), or (no wait, you wouldn't) the feeding of Christians to the Lions at the old Roman Colosseum.

I am not at all a religious person, though I would say I'm an agnostic (vs. being an atheist). I would believe in God if he appeared in a burning bush before me (without the assist of drugs) and spoke to me.

That said, I do recognize the good and bad in Religion, and there is good.

I also recognize that Secular Humanism IS a Religion in its own right, and for all the good I think we both see in it, I know I see the bad in it as I do with any Religion.

Unlike the Spaniards, we lived in relative peace with the Native Americans from the late 1400s through the late 1800s. The Indians taught us how to grow corn and how to trap. The Indians showed us passages through the Rockies to get to the West Coast. We gave them the horse.

It wasn't in the name of Religion that we ultimately went on a genocidal warpath against the Indians, it was in the name of a Secular concept known as Manifest Destiny. The Reservations the Indians were forced to was in the name of Law and commerce and titles to lands.

In the name of Secular Humanism, we built a public education system and made laws to force every child to go to one. In the process, we destroyed most (and nearly all, in some cases) of the culture, religion, and language of Native peoples.

In the name of Secular Humanism, we overthrew governments throughout our hemisphere so our own versions of the East India Tea Company could exploit the resources of those nations (see United Fruit Company, Saddam, too).

 

I'm not off-topic.

 

Some did, most didn't. Salem wasn't the only place in all the colonies, you know.

Many Native Americans converted to Christianity quite willingly. It was the "trade you these beads for Manhattan" kind of deals that really screwed over the Indians. They had no concept of property rights and when push came to shove, they couldn't win in the English-style courts - which were quite Secular and which enforced those property rights.

 

That was 200 years later, in the late 1800s.

Though there were skirmishes between Indians and the settlers - due to a serious clash of cultures. When an Indian's child died, their custom was to adopt another child. The white settlers didn't take too kindly to the kidnapping. On the flip-side, the settlers didn't honor much that was sacred to the Indians.

 

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~smason/html/kingphillipswar.htm

<center>[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]King Phillip’s War 1675-1676[/FONT]</center>

KING PHILIP’S WAR : THE CAUSES

Colonists’ hunger for land, as well as the heavy-handed treatment of the Wampanoag and other Native People by government officials, led to one of the most disastrous wars in America’s history.

Governor William Bradford died in 1657; Massasoit, the principal leader among the Wampanoag, died in 1660 and was succeeded by his son Wamsutta, called Alexander by the colonists. With the passing of the first generation, which had forged an uneasy alliance, the personal bonds which had helped to create a working peace ended.

The two cultures’ different ways of life and concepts of land use had caused tension for many ears. A continuing problem was the trampling of Native cornfields by colonists’ livestock. While colonists were legally responsible for damage, such laws were difficult to enforce in remote areas such as Rehoboth and Taunton. Increased competition for resources (particularly land for planting, hunting and fishing) caused friction between the two groups. Changes in the regional economy, such as collapse in the fur trade, led many Native People to support themselves by selling their land. With other governments (Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut) all competing to establish their territories, Plymouth wanted exclusive rights to purchase land from the Wampanoags.

KING PHILIP’S WAR : THE WAR

In 1662, in an arrogant attempt to exert control, the Plymouth Court summoned Wampanoag leader Wamsutta to Plymouth. Major Josiah Winslow and a small force took Wamsutta at gunpoint. Soon after questioning, Wamsutta sickened and died. His death greatly angered the Wampanoag.

Wamsutta's brother Metacom (also called Philip) succeeded him. Plymouth’s continued unyielding policy toward Native leaders, as well as the events surrounding the murder of Sassamon, a liaison between the two groups, caused the breakdown in relations that led to war.

In 1675, hostilities broke out in the town of Swansea, and the war spread as far north as New Hampshire, and as far southwest as Connecticut. Not all Native People, however, sided with Philip. Most Natives who had converted to Christianity fought with the English or remained neutral. The English, however, did not always trust these converts and interned many of them in camps on outlying islands. Also, some Native communities on Cape Cod and the Islands did not participate in the war. Native soldiers fighting on the side of the colonists helped turn the tide of the war, which ended in 1676 when Philip was killed by a Wampanoag fighting with Captain Benjamin Church.

KING PHILIP’S WAR : THE EFFECTS

King Philip’s War was one of the bloodiest and most costly in the history of America. One in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or killed. It took many years for Plymouth and the other colonies to recover from damage to property.

The outcome of King Philip’s War was devastating to the traditional way of life for Native People in New England. Hundreds of Natives who fought with Philip were sold into slavery abroad. Others, especially women and children, were forced to become servants locally. As the traditional base of existence changed due to the Colonists’ victory, the Wampanoag and other local Native communities had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive.
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