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“I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of
our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will
have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What
a happy day that will be!”
“ We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation.
We must take back what is rightfully ours.”
— Jerry Falwell
 Following
former President Bill Clinton’s death at Guantanamo Bay in 2010,
rioting swept the country.
The other day I was surfing the net and I came across an editorial
by Focus on the Family’s website editor Stuart Shepard.
Shepard, like so many ultra right-wing evangelicals, claims Christians
are under attack on all fronts. In an effort to show fellow Christians
what the future could hold if they don’t stand up for their beliefs,
he writes about what the year 2025 might be like. In his version of things
it’s a time and culture that he describes as “godless secularism.”
It made me think about what’s happening in this country right now — the
battle between secular and religious, the blurring of the lines of separation
between church and state and the words of the First Amendment — ratified
by Congress in 1791.
Let’s take a jump back in time, shall we — say 114 years?
“ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for
a redress of grievances.”
Now let’s jump forward a decade or so:
It’s 1802 and President Thomas Jefferson writes a letter to a group
of Baptists in Danbury, Conn. In it he declares that the purpose of the
First Amendment is to build ‘’a wall of separation between
Church and State.’’
It’s clear — at least to some of us — that the forefathers
of this country did not intend to have a country governed by religious
beliefs.
Now let’s play Shepard’s game and pretend we’re in
the year 2025.
Much of what was once the United States is now known as The New Christian
Republic of America (NCRA) and is under complete control of the New
Christian Republicans (NCR). There are no longer multiple political
parties in
this country — only the one. Within the party there are more conservative
and even moderate politicians — but they all share a common belief
in the teachings of Christianity. All their decision making is based
on this perspective.
The president is 49-year old George Prescott Bush, the nephew of former
President George W. Bush (2000-2008) and son of former President Jeb
Bush (2008-2020) (the New Christian Republic so loved “J.B.” — as
they called him — that they amended the Constitution to allow him
to serve a third term as president). “G.P.” is now in his
second term and is expected to assume office for a third time in 2028.
The turning point for the NCR party came when Jeb Bush defeated former
first lady turned N.Y. Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential
race. Clinton and her supporters level charges of voter fraud at the
Bush dynasty — but attempts at an investigation are squashed.
Despite public outrage, Clinton (along with her ailing husband former
President
Bill Clinton) is arrested for treason and imprisoned in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
Following Bill Clinton’s death at Guantanamo in 2010, civil uprisings
begin across the nation. In the north, the NCR-installed governments of
New York, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvannia, Massachsetts, Maryland, Delaware,
Connecticut and Maine are overthrown. Similar uprisings occur successfully
throughout other areas, including the upper midwest and the western coast — leaving
the country divided.
In the lower midwest and the southern states, however, outbreaks of civil
disobedience are met with destructive force, leaving thousands dead or
imprisoned. By late 2011, no longer able to maintain a presidential office
in the District of Columbia, President Jeb Bush sets up office in Richmond,
Va., the former capital of the Confederacy in 1861.
“
This is an historic moment,” President Bush declares. “Our
nation’s capital is once again where it belongs — in the
city that historically epitomizes everything we believe in.”
By the year 2015 the dust has settled and what was once a single nation
is now two.
The Union of Democratic States in America (UDSA) controls the upper north
and the west coast, while the NCRA maintains a fierce grip on the midwest
region and all southern states.
There is no travel between the two countries and borders are heavily
monitored, though there are many “underground railroad” efforts
at work to help liberals escape from cities like Miami, Atlanta and
Austin, Texas,
among others.
In the New Christian Republic of America in the year 2025 citizens are
required to live a god-fearing life. Prohibition has been reintroduced,
though many in high government offices are thought to illegally import
the spirits they desire.
Anyone who is deemed as undesirable by the state has two options: imprisonment,
mental/spiritual reprogramming and/or forced castration. That includes
all non-Christians, gays and lesbians, transgender individuals and anyone
who is caught having sex outside the bonds of matrimony. A constitutional
amendment permanently bans divorce.
Women’s reproductive rights were immediately overturned by presidential
order in 2012, shortly following the establishment of NCRA’s
new capital in Richmond. While the death rate of unmarried pregnant
women
has increased from many attemps at self-induced abortions, the number
of single-parent
children has dropped to almost zero.
Women who do give birth out of marriage face the same circumstances
as government-deemed “undesirables” and lose all parental
rights. Desirable children are immediately placed in proper two-parent
Christian
homes, while undesirable children are housed in government care facilities.
All news, television, film, stage productions, art exhibits, radio broadcasts
and music are to be submitted to a local or national NCR review board (depending
on the type of presentation) and must meet the following two requirements:
the glorification of Christianity and uplifting, positive story material.
Indeed, life in the New Christian Republic of America is idyllic, controlled
and preordained. There is little to no crime — because penance
is often augmented with biblical scripture. In addition to stiff prison
sentences,
criminals can face a bevy of theocratic-style punishments from removal
of appendages to stoning.
Back to reality. It’s 2005. This scenario hasn’t happened.
In all likelihood — it probably won’t. Nevertheless — it
is clear that now is the time for those of us who believe in a distinct
separation of church and state to stand up and fight for what we believe
in.
— David Moore
Editor
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