The incestuous marriage of religion and politics in our country seems to be the ruination of each. It is a crusade in the name of God to rid the earth of all infidels and unbelievers who dare defile the rare atmosphere of heady faith. Dissent is not tolerated.
Intelligence is frowned upon unless it is dogmatic and closed.
Disturbing questions, clear thinking and common sense are thought to be irreverent, insolent and disrespectful of proper authority. This fanaticism blends politics with religion until basic and important distinctions are blurred. There are a score of great religions in the world, each with scores or hundreds of sects, each with its priestly orders, its complicated creed and ritual, its heavens and hells. Their belief in Jesus gives them an indefatigably sympathetic confidant, assuages their fear of death and bereavement, wards off existential angst, assures cosmic purpose, and aligns them with the good guys. So handsome are the psychological pay-offs of belief that many, perhaps most, devout orthodox Christians are impervious to all countervailing logic and evidence.