Reconstructing Christians

THE TERM "Christian Dominionism" came to my attention some time ago, and as I recall, it refers to a philosophy in which its adherants desire to build and nurture a movement to spread the Christian faith everywhere, particularly in the United States, and to isntall Christianity as the official religion of the U.S., thus making it a "Christian nation" in actuality, for the first time in American history. Christianity has always been and remains, albeit barely, the dominant religion in America, but the U.S. has never been officially a "Christian country", but rather, a country of religious freedom with separation of church and state, according to its constitution. More recently the term "Christian Reconstructionism" comes to my attention, prompting me to wonder whether there is any difference between the two, and if so, precisely what the difference is. My limited research seems to indicate that the two terms, the two movements are essentially the same, with the same basic, general objectives, and that the difference in terminology is merely a matter of different people providing the terminology and the leadership. That conclusion, of course, might be innacurate. Both movements, which henceforth I shall assume to be a single movement, are dangerous, and must be resisted strenuously, and defeated. Religious uniformity throughout any society is undesirable, for it breeds and reinforces intolerance and various forms of harmful evil, as well as good. The good can be achieved without any religion at all. Any society which maintains an established reilgion and requires adherance to religious uniformity is oppressive. Examples of this abound in European history, in French and English history, among other countries. The seventeenth century was dominated by international wars, all brought on by the philosophy of religious conformity and uniformity. This is but one of many examples of the harmful effects of religious domination of culture. The history of the violent relationship between the Islamic and Christian religions need scarcely be mentioned. A better world would be one in which it was universally accepted that every person has his or her own religious beliefs, his or her own religion, and in which religious uniformity is considered undesirable by the population in general. Seven billion people, seven billion religions, none of them dominant over any other, no organized religion on a widepsread scale, no organized violence based on religious differences. Goethe said: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine". Goethe seems to have been aware that in fact everyoone does have an individual religion; nonetheless, society in general, rather than joyfully accepting this wonderful reality, seems intent on organizing itself into religious factions. Humankind suffers because of this.