The Linear Canvas

After the hurricanes and recent earthquakes, almost every televangelist fell over themselves predicting the start of the end of the world. They imply the destruction of New Orleans was the wrath of God, for all of the sin that has happened there. Of course they never mention all of the poor Christians that died or were made homeless. Churches and schools were destroyed because God doesn’t like Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street?

Following the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, about the only thing left standing was the A.P. Hotaling’s Whiskey Warehouse. A local poet was inspired to write:

If, as some say, God spanked the town
For being over frisky
Why did he burn the churches down
And save Hotaling’s whiskey?

The religious right seems to want the end of the world to come as soon as possible. I doubt if they can really pull that off, but they can certainly make the world into a worse place to live. They are doing a good job of that.

This is the story of European religious history repeated here in the USA. Their rush to create an American theocracy can only lead to the ruin of what we stand for as Americans.

Church/state separation is important. Not just to protect the masses from religion in general, but from unscrupulous religious authority that would attempt to control all of religion and end all religious diversity.