A Rambling Argument for Secularism and Transformation

Many things have been Done and Undone in the Name of God......

Theocracies are more dangerous, holistically manipulative and Soul Devouring than Secular Societies.  

Secular Societies which develop more Inclusionary Cultures based on Egalitarian Laws of Equality and Protection of Human Rights and overall Individual and Societal Opportunities, Responsibilities and Freedoms for every member of that Collective, and separate Church and State are healthier and more sustaining in the long run, because Religions primarily Guide and Inform our Interior Lives and External Behaviors through our Spiritual Belief Systems and Communities, and the State (with constant Thought and massaging)  primarily Guides our Interior Lives and External Behaviors through the Rule of Ethical and Cultural Laws of our Communities and Humanity.

Theocracies are always pushing the God Buttons to get Individuals and Societies as a whole to move in one direction or another.  If the Theocrats are Benevolent and Compassionately Wise Leaders that consider the overall Sustenance, Nurturance and Good Will of every member, Societies have a tendency to cohere, flourish and prosper.  However, if the Theocrats are militarized and politicized narcissistic, sociopathic brutes and thugs….well, acts of extreme cruelty and barbarism can become the abnormal norm.  Just ask the Terrorists.  

The darker, more cruel Theocrats drive their enslaved Peoples (enslaved by the constant pushing of the God Buttons inducing Fear and promises of a Better Afterlife, because the only ones who will lead a Better Life on this plane of existence are primarily the Theocratic Leaders themselves, who are looked upon and treated as prophets and demi-gods of creature comforts and martyrdom) and their Neighbors into a world of toxic madness for their name’s sake in the guise of God’s namesake.

“Destroy this entire village and all of the people within it !  Burn it to the ground !  In the name of God, of Yahweh, of Allah, of Buddha, of Krishna…etc. !  This War is a Holy War - a Sacred War !  You are Warriors for God !  The Theocrats are the Voice of God and their Followers are the ever expendable fodder of the Theocrats’ very Human hatreds, urges for revenge, political agendas, military agendas, greeds and needs for Power., and so on and so on….”

Theocracies eventually become nuclear bombs that implode and explode upon one-and-all.  No one is left unscathed.  Many simply cease to Exist as they float away in the Atomic Dust of the End Times.

And the Theocrats are often also being manipulated and prodded knowingly and/or unknowingly by the Authoritarian dictators or Totalitarian leaders in their Neighborhoods, who are themselves knowingly and/or unknowingly being manipulated and prodded by the other varying Global Governments around them.

Yes, it’s a lot to keep up with.  A complicated and convoluted tightly bound and twisted Tapestry that they all weave together.  And who helps them weave it ?  Who fights their jihads ?  Who lives under their thumbs and the heels of their boots or sandals ?  That’s right everyone else involved.

No Cultural entity has ever been able to avoid the many and complex issues of Theocracies.  At one time, the Jewish peoples were tired of living in Servitude and Slavish squalor under the Egyptian Theocratic Sun God, and so they longed and prayed for a Theocratic Warrior Prophet to save them in their Hearts and Minds.  When Moses came along, he definitely fit the bill, and so Enlivened and filled with Renewed Life the Jewish Peoples followed him into the deserts and wildernesses in search of the Land of Milk and Honey - the Promised Land.  A Land of their own where they could find and live in Peaceful cohesion amongst their own ilk.

Later on, European Catholic Popes, wanted to recapture the Holy Lands, and create their own Theocratic Christian Empire to Rule.  So, they set off - oh excuse me, most of them stayed safely at home and sent other European hordes filled with Imperialistic Lords (who considered themselves to be Holy Warriors or just wanted to get away from home for adventure and plunder, or to steal lands and riches for themselves), their vassals and servants, and others seeking a way out of poverty, exclusion, lack of opportunities, lack of human rights and dignity (but who gave themselves Earthly Value as Warriors for God, and paid the priests, and received papal dispensations and remittances assuring them a place in Heaven if they fought in the Holy Wars - the Holy Crusades against the fearsome, Sinful Infidels).

Yes, hundreds and thousands of men and women of all classes traveled the long journeys through Europe and the Middle East to Jerusalem - the Golden City of God - El Dorado (excuse me that was a Holy City of riches and treasure on another continent - but oh, how similar) pillaging and devastating the landscapes like locusts, and making Europe even more enemies than it had before.  Enemies who had never even heard of Europeans, and that Europeans, themselves, never even knew existed.  

So, it is with moving, hungry hordes, Holy or not.  When the belly growls, the Beast within awakens.  Angels of God can become Earthly Demons - some belatedly Repentant for their Sins, and others Sociopathically not so Repentant, and seeking bloody repetition of their dastardly and horrific deeds, which would Forgiven anyway for a few dollars more to this or that priest of God).

And thus, a Religion of Peace and Love clashed its way throughout Europe and the Middle East with Feudalism and Militarism.  Halleluiah !  To God be the Glory !

Yes, the Holy Warriors even led a Children’s Crusade toward Jerusalem.  The children were seen as Pure and Innocent Souls who would bring their Imperialistic and murderous deeds a much needed cleansing and purifying Miracle of Faith.  Where the Sin-filled Adults had failed, the Pure Innocents would Win the day.  Amen ! 

Thousands of Children from France and Germany joined the Children’s Crusade probably filled with ecstatic pride and joy…in the beginning.  But, alas, many died along the way, and many were enslaved to Slave Dealers in Marseilles, never reaching the City of God at all.  Que sera, sera.

The Adults of that Crusade were surely a match for the Terrorists today who Teach their own Children and the Children they have enslaved, after murdering or stealing them from their parents as they shoot, bomb, and behead their way to a glorious Caliphate, how to shoot, bomb and behead others considered in the way, themselves.  Ah, the Purity and Innocence of Children are precious in a Terrorist’s Eyes and a Terrorist’s perspective of Allah , of God, of Yahweh, of Buddha, of Krishna…etc. ! 

The Holy Crusaders of the Past - the Warriors for God even sacked Constantinople sealing the infamous East-West Schism.  A Schism Humanity is still struggling to find a Bridge of Understanding - of Sisterhood and Brotherhood across. 

On another Crusade (oh yes, there were many.  If at first you don’t succeed, do try and try again, you Mad, but thoroughly convicted person, you) the Godly Warriors of Godly Imperialism (much like today’s ISIS/ISIL Warriors for Allah pillaging, torturing and murdering their way to a Holy Caliphate - a nationalized and politicized Holy Land for themselves and folks they have violently persuaded to their way of existing and folks of their own ilk) also trounced the Rhineland on their way to God’s City massacring thousands of Jews and strengthening Jewish feelings of Zionism (we’ve gotta’ get our own Homeland to nationalize and politicize the Jewish Culture within - to protect and make safe for ourselves because we are sick and tired of being trashed upon and murdered just because we’re the Chosen Ones who killed the Christian Jesus, who was a Jewish Boy, himself).  Sound ever so slightly similar ?  Oy-veh !

Yes, yes there are many repetitive, cyclical movements throughout Human history.   We Human Beings are really quite more alike than we are different, but that is a very difficult admission to make for most, because it diminishes our need for Uniqueness.  Alas !

And so here we are again.  Repeating the same old Behavioral Patterns of Destruction and Nihilism in the name of God, of Yahweh, of Allah, of Buddha, of Krishna…etc. (sigh).  

Until Humanity finally decides to sit down at the Round Table of Multilogues and spend less Thought, Time, Money and Energy on the War Machines and Weapons and Warrior Trainings that continue to Murder us all when we come in close contact with them.  And instead Chooses to spend more of our Thought, Time, Money and Energies on Healing and Actively and persitently dealing with the deep and poisonous Wounds of the Individual and the Societal Psyche and Behaviors which give malformed and malicious Birth to the things that Murder us all, Individually, Collectively, and Systemically in one way or another (poverty, lack of Opportunities, lack of Hope in a Better Life and a Better Future, bigotry, hatred, discrimination, slavery, diminishment, intolerance, greedy hubris, sexism, exclusion, disenfranchisement…etc.), we will all just continue to go round and round in dizzying and confusing Circles of Ultimate Meaninglessness and Nothingness.  Crazily Repeating and Repeating the same old Individual, Collective and Systemic Mis-Takes and Mis-Steps in the Name of God, the Name of Yahweh, the Name of Allah, the Name of Buddha, the Name of Krishna….etc., and in the Name of Ourselves !