The superintendent of schools in Oklahoma is threatening loss of licensure for any teacher who doesn’t comply with his order to teach the Bible in a public school classroom. Please read that again. In an interview, the superintendent was asked about non-Christian students feeling uncomfortable being forced to read Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and his response was, “You don’t change history based on feelings.” The basis for decisions like this is, of course, the idea that America was created to be a Christian nation where non-Christians are allowed to live, but whose religion is not respected as equal to the Christian faith. It is Christian White Supremacy and Nationalism at its most virulent. It is also a lie.
This lie is also behind the recent production of the bible that former President Trump has been selling for three times its worth. That version has a flag imprinted on the front and includes foundational documents of our country. By including them, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are being represented as being just as holy as the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The combination of all of these products in one volume creates, for all intents and purposes, a serialized version of America as the Christian Promised Land – the New Jerusalem from the Book of Revelation, and not just a land of opportunity and freedom. This Christian Dominionism puts every non-Christian and thinking person at risk. It is also blasphemy.
Adolf Hitler did something similar in his quest for power. The Nazi Bible he had produced had no Hebrew Scriptures and made changes to parts of the Christian Scriptures as well. For example, the New Testament was “scrubbed of Jewish reference, and the Ten Commandments became twelve. Number eight reads: “Keep the blood pure and the marriage holy.” In the same way that modern-day Fundamentalists misuse the Bible, so Hitler did the same thing. Marx told us that religion was the opiate of the masses, and people like Hitler used it as a means of control and indoctrination (How Hitler Changed The Bible — and Why It Still Matters in Trump’s America (forward.com).
It is fitting on this actual day that the Continental Congress declared our independence from Great Britain that we consider the state of democracy and religion in America. To conflate Christianity with America is to miss the point completely. This is not a Christian nation, but some of the people who founded it were Christians. And Deists. And Agnostics. There were Jews and Muslims and Buddhists (among others) living in the 13 Colonies. Atheists too. This land belongs to all people, regardless of their religion or lack thereof. I have had mixed feelings about some of the actions of the Supreme Court in recent years, but if they allow this to continue, it will mean that they are truly broken and corrupt. The First Amendment matters. If it doesn’t, we are no longer a democracy.
Prayer – Holy God, save us from the corruption that is growing in this country and in so many of our churches. Speak through the Spirit words of truth and love. Amen.
Today’s art is by Nick Anderson.