The enslavement of my ancestors was justified by religion

I believe it’s a bit more complex than belief in talking snakes, though that was pretty funny. We all know the story about the Puritans and how they came here looking for religious freedom. Do a little digging and you’ll see that’s just as big a myth as the one about the English bringing all the food to the first Thanksgiving feast as depicted in the famous painting At any rate, from what I’ve been able to discern, there’s a inextricable link between religious faith and the notion of “manifest destiny” in this country. The conquest and slaughter of Native Americans was justified by religion. The enslavement of my ancestors was justified by religion. The notion of inherent white superiority is partially rooted in a belief that God and Jesus are white like the paintings we all see every Sunday (i.e. “created in His own image”). Religion justifies and underpins everything people claim as being inherently American. The Ku Klux Klan proports itself to be a “Christian” organization. Racial segregation was partially, if not fully, based on the Bible passage in Genesis that talks about “each after his own kind”. It’s “God’s will” for the US to be a great country. “God shed His grace on thee…” You see, without religion and it’s subsequent perversions, the US wouldn’t be the country that it is. I’d venture to say that those in power early in this country’s history understood the power of religion as being a “force multiplier”. If you look back, you’ll notice a heavy dose of “righteousness” and “God” in government propaganda through the years. Over the past eight years, you’ve seen the near ultimate manifestation of this notion in how Bush used religion to push this country to the brink of disaster. There were ministers, men of God, advocating for war in their churches on Sundays prior to the Iraq invasion when “war” is the complete antithesis of what Jesus stood for. They were no better than bin Laden issuing his “fatwas”. The ultimate manifestation will be when the US president orders a nuclear strike because he/she believes it’s God’s will, especially when her home church believes her home state will be a refuge during the “End Times”.
~ Ho Chi Daddy (September 29, 2008)