WORM'S EYE

(Ross Tipon's reaction to 'Piety, politics and the Catholic vote'.)

America is too pre-occupied with religion. There is no more communism (except Fidel Castro) for the Christian Rightists to kick around. It not possiblefor the Christian Right to kick Islam around becauseRepublican fatcats (who, if not members of theChristian Right, easily pander to them) are complicitwith such reactionary states as Saudi Arabia andPakistan. What was Bush first reaction to 9/11? Flyout the family of Bin Ladin while all commercialaircraft were grounded.

Incidentally Fidel Castro is presented as alarger-than-life ogre by the Chrisitian Right.Onereason America was late, almost too late, toappreciate the threat posed by fascism in the 30s wasits pre-occupation with this "godless ideology", whichthen was a threat only to its kulaks. True indeedAmerica helped create Bin Laden with itsanti-communist crusade in Afghanistan.

This Archbishop Chaput is a phony. If a fellow, say anominee, to the US Supreme Court. were to be a memberof a white-supremacist country club, he rightfullycould be excoriated. But religion is hardly aclassification of choice, but more of a custom. Youare a Roman Cathlolic because your mother was one. Youdid not jump out of the cradle crying out to bebaptized. That is why I think we should not be tooharsh on Islam. What choice does a little boy or girlin the desert have when the Koran is shown to him/heras the shining truth. To be a suicide bomber is achoice, no doubt reinforced by perverted religion,that is, religion that has crossed into the politicalsphere.

To me there is no phony Cathlolic, Methodist, Islamor Buddhist because all religions are in flux. Thereare always purists of course of which this Chaputseems to be one. He would be easily at home with themullahs of Iran issuing fatwahs to whoever crossesthem. Jesus Christ, or rather Saint Paul, created hisown religion and the more enterprising GeneralConstantine turned it into the state religion tocement his rule over an empire in turmoil. Religiousbeliefs are okay for as long as they are practicedwithin the framework of a secular state.

An explanation for America's preoccupation withreligion is found in the excellent article by RodgerDoyle "Why America is Different [from the rest of thecivilized world]" in the Summer 2002 Issue of FREEINQUIRY http://www.secularhumanism.org.

Excerpts from the above: "We are accustomed tothinking that colonial America as more religious thanmodern America., so it may seem surprising to manythat church attendance was much lower than now."

Here's another one: "The missionary programs of theSouthern Baptists and other evangelic groups help toexplain why American church membership is so highcompared to that of Europe, where historically theestablished churches tended to discourage rivalreligious activity."

You will also be surprised to learn from this articlethat there are less people as percentage of thepopulation in Spain (the land of the Inquisition) andIreland (where Catholics were thought of to wear theircreed on their sleeves) that absolutely believe inGod. The correlation chart shows that there is ahigher percentage of the population in these twocountries (about 60%) who have a correct knowledge ofEvolution compared to the USA's (about 45% only).

Do you want to know what percentage of developedcountries population are atheists and agnostics? Hereit is: France (highest) 37%; Sweden, 35%; Japan, 32%... Spain, 16%, Italy, 9%, USA, 8%, Portugal (bottom),5%.

God bless America!