Defending Our Secular Democracy

IT IS DISTRESSING, to people who understand and embrace the founding principles of the United States, that such a harmful, malignant movement as "Christian nationalism" stains the public discourse and the body politic, if only peripherally, thus far. It is comforting that the movement is as yet a small stain, easily removed, god willing, and if the rest of us maintain our senses and the Christian nationalists come to theirs. A little time and informational sunlight should achieve that disinfection. For "Christian nationalism" substitute the expression "patriotic diversity", or "American religious freedom", with a secular democratic government, the people at large deciding on their religious destiny. We do not want to live in a country governed by barbaric biblical law. Democracy, literally, is the mob rule of the majority, which the founders carefully avoided, but which, over the centuries, has become increasingly possible, increasingly desirable. If we must be governed, as we must be to at least some extent due to the need for social organization and cooperative endeavors of various sorts, then rule by the majority is the best answer in today's world, - why not govern ourselves ? - preferrable to oligarchy, plutocracy, authoritarianism, or anarchy. We are moving towards democracy, despite the Trump bump in the road, despite the extreme concentration of wealth in America which prevents true democracy from manifesting. In terms of self governance, of creating an actual democracy, we have steadily moved away from the restrictive popular sovereignty, representative intentions of the founders. With regard to religious establishement, we should, according to decency and reason, stidk close to the intentions of the founders; a sceular governent with tolerance of religious diversity, tolerance of the thousands of religions extant in contemporary America, tolerance and acceptance of the more than thirteen hundred organized, registered religions in the country. Christian nationalism, in some twisted form or another, has always been extant in American culture; fortunately, it has never gained a sufficient foothhold nor sufficient popularity to pose a real threat to the wisdom concerning religion embodied in the constitution of 1787, arguablly among the few basic tenets of the constitution which needn't be or shouldn't be upgraded or more clearly defined. If anything, religious influence in the political system and government will decrease onver the next few years, as the percentage of the population which identifies as "Christian" continues to decline, and "nationalsm" is superceded by the necessity of international cooperation in areas such as climate change, pandemics, and the global economy. As with every other issue of public concern, the American Christian conservative community is relentless in its refusal to accept this obvious reality, but will eventually be forced to against its fondest desires, for it will be surrounded by, inundated with, and eonfronted with an overwhelming body of evidence and public opinion.