.
The United
States seems to be besieged by puritanical, pious, sanctimonious,
bible-thumping evangelical Christians who have it in their minds to replace our
democratic republic with a theocracy.
They will, of course, legislate endlessly to obtain this governmental
nightmare and to require that all citizens and residents of this nation become
carbon copies of the fundamentalists, they think their religion demands.
Look at Iran,
or perhaps Pakistan and you’ll see what the evangelical goal for this country is. If you prefer a Catholic theocracy, you need
only look at Latin America with its native peoples enslaved by the Church and
birth rates that eclipse those of rabbits.
Tennessee’s
teavangelist/GOP primary took place yesterday and the winning candidate is the
potential Grand Inquisitor, former Senator Santorum. The state’s evangelicals seem to be willing
to roll the social and cultural calendars back to the 19th century
or earlier. The chance to become a
national candidate for office may fall into the lap of a white male who rejects
birth control of any form, who will watch an adult female die painfully and
needlessly rather than save her life by terminating a pregnancy.
I have
listened to Santorum’s pronunciations and have no doubt that under his
administration the separation of church and state would vanish into his agenda
to restore public floggings, forced maternity cloisters, criminal penalties for
selling, purchasing, possessing, and using any form of contraception beyond
Vatican roulette. It is easy to see him
and his religious emulators bring back the religious conflicts that initially
aided immigration to the new world. Mass
expulsions, the demise of public schools, forced membership in a
state-sponsored church are not that improbable if such overly sanctimonious men
gain and control public offices.
That control
seems all too possible given the GOP\teavangelist platform of taxing the poor
to help the rich. If the planks that support destroying the 1st
Amendment are allowed to remain in the agenda the right’s voter base will
eagerly destroy the freedom from state religion that we now enjoy. Part of the groundwork has been laid by
idiots such as Palin and other evangelicals who eschew science for mythology,
education for illiteracy, history for propaganda.
We need to
recall that the puritans landed in New England not because they were seeking a
legal means of practicing their religion; but because they were such pious,
sanctimonious, judgmental, un-forgiving, bastards that no one was willing to
live near them. That is who I recall
when I see an image of Santorum with his finger pointing upward as if he has
some link to the Vatican via some unwashed, hair-shirted hermit.
Look back to
today’s title. The white males who will
back Santorum’s demands to return to the morality of the 19th
century, the male-dominant portion of it will thrive in the double standard that
existed then and which will rapidly evolve again. While copulation will, of course, only take
place for procreation, women will die carrying and delivering unwanted fetuses;
of STD’s brought home by their male masters, and of sepsis caused by home-made
or back alley abortions.
The “Holy
Ground” above is not a church, a hospital, or even a cemetery. Far from it!
The Holy Ground is a prime example of what a theocracy would encourage.
The Holy Ground was any of several brothels in seaports around the world. The town of Cobh in Ireland may be the source
for the song. There was also s NYC
red-light district known as the Holy Ground,
We know how
destructive theocratic wars can be. We
know that the most vicious, most costly of civilian lives, wars are those
started by religious fanatics. If there
is ever a 2nd American Civil War it will likely be started by people
claiming that there is a “war on Christianity.”
There isn’t such a war, despite the insistence of various demagogues and
fanatics. However, there may well be
grounds if we don’t find a mechanism to delete religion from civil life.
“And
regarding the New York “Holy Ground”, From City of Eros:
“The most prominent prostitution district after 1770 and into
the early nineteenth century was the famed “Holy Ground.” In the two
blocks along Church, Vesey, and Barclay streets, the city’s most expensive
“houses of debauchery” prospered on land owned by the Episcopal church and
adjacent to King’s College (later Columbia University). On the eve of the
Revolution, one observer remarked that over five hundred “ladies of
pleasure [kept] lodgings contiguous within the consecrated liberties of
Sr. Paul’s [Chapel].”
“There is
nothing surprising that prostitutes and sailors might frequent the
same neighborhoods. I have long thought that the claim that prostitution
is the “oldest profession” is obviously wrong. After all how
could the ladies practice their profession without a pre-existing
sailor? Sort a chicken and egg problem involving who gets laid, so
to speak.”
Nor is
there any real separation of harlotry and high Church official in the years
since Constantine legitimized the Christian faith. Countless priests, bishops, cardinals, and
popes have demonstrated that males will overlook the transgressions of males as
pertains to canon law and civil law. I
would expect nothing else in a new American Taliban.
I trust Santorum and his theocratic supporters
no more than I would trust the Taliban in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
“The Holy Ground
- Fare thee well
my lovely Dinah,
A thousand times adieu
For we’re going away from the Holy Ground,
And the girls we all love true
We will sail the salt seas over,
And then return for shore
To see again the girls we love,
And the holy Ground once more
FINE GIRL YOU ARE
You're the girl that I adore,
But still I live in hope to see
The holy Ground once more
. - And now the
storm is raging,
And we are far from shore
And the good old ship is tossing about,
And the rigging is all tore
And the secret of my life, my love,
You're the girl that I adore
But still I live in hope to see,
Holy Ground once more
FINE GIRL YOU ARE
You're the girl that I adore,
But still I live in hope to see
The holy Ground once more
. - And now the
storm is over,
And we are safe and well
We will go down to a public house,
And sit and drink like hell
We will drink strong ale and porter,
And we’ll make the rafters roar
And when our money is all spent,
We will go to sea once more
FINE GIRL YOU ARE
You're the girl that I adore,
But still I live in hope to see
The holy Ground once more, FINE GIRL YOU ARE
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