In These Final Days

Visigoths and Vandals are given partial credit for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. In the fifteen-hundred or so years since then, a plethora of theories have emerged on just exactly what happened to the once ruler of the civilized world. That Christianity was adopted as the state religion about the same time cannot be underestimated as also having played a role, something to think about the next time you hear someone proclaim the United States of American to be a Christian nation. With so many of our civil liberties and constitutional rights under assault since the Bush era, it may seem unimportant to argue for the separation of church and state, but closer attention to what’s going on in our country right now reveals a sinister blurring of the distinction. Whether it is anti-abortion, pro-guns, or just saying “no” to President Obama on general principle, there are zealous Christianists at every rally. And rather than encourage the constitutional separation of church and state, Christianist preachers are leading the assault on that wise and, dare I say, sacred distinction. If you like what you see going on in the Muslim world these days, you’re gonna love when Christianism becomes our state religion. There’s no question that the devil is hard at work, and these days he’s slipping the wolves into the flock disguised as evangelical Christianists.