"Imagine No Religion" (in Politics)

In astrology, Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius and 9th House connect to religion, politics and philosophy. It's a great pity that ancient astrologers saw religion and politics as being so closely linked. I suppose that, at root, the mental and philosophical roots of religion and politics could be said to arise from similar ground, and this is why there are common astrological links. Sagittarius also links to ethics, foreign cultures, travel, international affairs, and how the individual relates to the "big picture", the world, and to a higher power, leading to its representation of belief systems and faith. Sagittarian optimism and idealism links to expansion, and progress, while its shadow side brings in a pompous preaching element, personified as a zealot trying to "save" or convert with his "truth".
(Illustration: The card Principle from Oracle of the Radiant Sun deck, the ninth card in the suit of Jupiter, The Suit of Gain.)


I, possibly mistakenly, see politics as more the province of Saturn and Capricorn. Laws, a major aspect of politics, are indeed the province of Saturn, but "The Church" as an institution, and "The State" as an entity connect to Capricorn, so the "terrible two" are entwined yet again.

Are religion and politics the same as church and state?

Religious belief, or lack of it, has nothing at all to do with the ability to run a country, which is, or ought to be, the prime aim of politics. We might as well be guided by the colour of someone's eyes, or whether they wear briefs, boxers or neither, as be guided by their religious persuasions. Religion, atheisim, or anything between is an intimate, purely personal matter which should have nothing whatsoever to do with politics. This applies in the USA, especially, because its Constitution allows freedom of religion -any religion, or indeed non-religion. Conversely there ought not to be any interference by religious bodies, of whatever persuasion, into politics.

The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

This is supplemented by Article 6 of the Constitution that says:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

These two declarations indicate the direction in which the country should travel. Separation, setting religion and government apart, supposedly guaranteeing fair and equal treatment to all citizens, whatever their religious beliefs or lack of them.

It's not working though.

In the USA religious establishments are allowed to function as tax free entities. Public money goes to schools run by religious organisations, and as loans to pay for students (who are not schooled well in the sciences)to attend colleges run by religious organisations. God is on USA money, and part of the Pledge of Allegiance; Oaths in courts of law are taken on a Holy book; there are prayers at the inauguration of a president; "God bless America" is intoned after every State of the Union address. Why?

And what about "The Family" and the "C Street House"? (See Wikipedia HERE).
Also an article at Salon: Sex and Power Inside "The C Street House". A clip from that piece follows:

But Family men are more than hypocritical. They’re followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to “advance the Kingdom.” They say they’re working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn’t registered as a lobby — and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.

The Family likes to call itself a “Christian Mafia,” but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR’s socialism. The Family’s goal was the “consecration” of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a “Worldwide Spiritual Offensive,” but in Washington, it amounted to the nation’s first fundamentalist lobby.

In both presidential election campaigns I've experienced religion has been touted again and again by candidates - on both sides of the (in my opinion fictional) divide. Religious views, it should be noted, of one religious faction only, are becoming increasingly, and aggressively, forced into political debate and argument.

If the Constitution were working it'd be equally possible for a Christian, Muslim, Pagan or atheist to be president of the USA, and to wield political power in lesser positions too. In theory it is possible. In practice not so much. Maybe it will work in practice, eventually - in say another 500 or so years if, in the meantime, we don't blow ourselves to smithereens or cause the Earth to dispose of us dramatically, as the parasites we have become.

From what I've gleaned, by reading and talking to my husband, things were not always this bad in the US. Perhaps 9/11, then the so-called "War on Terror" against Islamic factions, and several years of a general feeling of financial insecurity have all fired up more intense levels of religiosity among Christian fundamentalists in the US.

I wasn't a fan of the late Christopher Hitchens, but I do hope he rests in peace. He was right in this quote of his:

“How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.”