There is a famous statement and provocative poem attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The poem is thus; “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.” The poem is as prescient today as it was a reflection of events that led to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, but unlike Niemöller’s remorse at his and German intellectuals’ cowardice driving their silence, there are Americans speaking out about one groups’ systematic targeting of group after group for control and subjugation. There are a substantial number of Americans ignorant of the real and present danger firmly entrenched in their midst and in the halls of power, and an equally number of ignorant Americans aware of the danger and believe it is waning.
The Supreme Court will begin hearing a case next week that has the potential of dwarfing the devastating effect of the High Court’s Citizens United ruling, and yet there is little to no public interest in a matter that could effectively invalidate every federal and state law and render an important Constitutional amendment null and void. On its face, the question the Court chose to rule on is the height of absurdity from a Constitutional point of view, and absolutely insane as an intellectual exercise. However, these are absurd and insane days in America and the nation’s highest court will decide if a legal instrument prays, worships, and is afforded religious liberty to force other Americans to adhere to the legal instrument’s religious beliefs.
The implications to all Americans of a ruling in favor of a privately-held for-profit corporation in the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. case is beyond deciding if a private corporation has constitutionally-protected religious rights to force female employees to adhere to extremist Christianity’s prohibition on contraception use. The Hobby Lobby case and a companion case could transform the theory of corporate personhood into one of corporate religious tyranny, eliminate a woman’s right to decide when to give birth, and abolish the First Amendment’s Separation and Establishment Clauses. Americans have learned in recent years that under Christian fundamentalist’s interpretation of the 1st Amendment, freedom of religion entails the right to force Christianity on the population as a Constitutional right afforded them by the Founding Fathers; the Court will decide if powerful and rich corporations have that right and it is shocking there are not millions of voices crying out in protest.
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The Founding Fathers did not have a high opinion of Christianity and rightfully sought to protect Americans from machinations of Christians seeking legal protection to dominate the people. In 1785 Founding Father James Madison wrote that, “During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.” In 1774 well before the Declaration of Independence Madison also wrote that “Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 that “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church & State,” and Thomas Pain wrote in 1791 that “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”
The point that fundamentalists and main-stream Christians, including corporations owned by Christians, seeking to impose their will under cover of religious freedom cannot, and will not, accept is that the Founders were resolute in their fear of Christianity being established by law. A ruling that a for-profit corporation can impose their religion on its employees will, in the words of James Madison, “facilitate the execution of mischievous projects” and subject them to “the strongly marked feature of persecution and bigotry” according to Thomas Paine. It is why Thomas Jefferson wrote he contemplated that “the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church and State.” The religious right has been on a crusade to tear down the wall of separation and establish, by legislation and Supreme Court ruling, Christianity as the law of the land and they are one High Court ruling away from achieving their two-century-old goal.
It is noteworthy that Hobby Lobby’s devoutly Christian owner regards contraception, including IUDs and the so-called “morning after pill,” an abortifacient which in-and-of-itself is patently absurd as well as biologically and medically impossible. An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. A fertilized egg, or just having sexual intercourse, is not in any way, shape, or form a pregnancy and without a pregnancy, there can be no abortion. It is true religious extremists consider a single-celled zygote (a sperm penetrating an egg) a person inside the woman’s womb, but until that one-celled organism implants on the uterine wall there is no pregnancy; period, end of discussion. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga’s owners disagree and it is why they seek the Court to rule that biology and medical science are wrong and that they have the right to force women to subject themselves to their version of Christianity.
If any American believes for one nano-second that corporations, small businesses, organizations, or private individuals subscribing to fundamentalist Christianity will stop at controlling women and subjugating them to an owner’s religious beliefs, they are disregarding the persistent warnings their liberty is in jeopardy. Americans rightly railed and protested against Arizona’s legislation giving any group, individual, government entity, or business the right to break any law if it violated their religious liberty, but a ruling for Hobby Lobby will be Arizona’s law imposed on the entire nation for all time. It is important to remember that the Arizona legislation never, not even one time, used the word gay that informs the legislation was meant to afford Christians legal cover to disregard any law they claimed violated their religious liberty. Extremist Christians have lusted for an ultimate “conscience clause” and a High Court ruling for fundamentalists’ version of “religious liberty” will be that legal cover to impose “religion established by law.”
The Founding Fathers’ protection against “religion established by law” has prevented Americans from falling victim to the “great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects” for over 240 years. That protection has never, in the history of America, faced extinction that a ruling that private corporations have constitutionally-protected religious liberty to force adherence to their version of Christianity on its employees will bring. A ruling for corporate religious freedom will not stop at radical Christians targeting women because they will pursue gays, single mothers, divorced women, school children, or non-believers as ardently as they target contraception coverage and a woman’s right to choose. For years the religious right have targeted women’s reproductive rights and few have spoken out with no success because there is an unspoken law in America that citing the Constitution and warning that religious extremists are an existential threat to America is paranoia, conspiracy theory, and attacks on “the good Christians.” A ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby will put an end to warnings because after they target women for religious persecution and subjection they will target the next group on their long list; those who spoke out to warn Americans their freedoms were under attack from the religious right.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
