> Whatever happened two hundred years ago is no longer relevant
I don't think so. I'm not an expert sociologist or historian, but I get the sense that characteristics of a society such as the peculiar importance of religiosity in U.S. society tend to linger on for quite a while.
> --there may have been once a movement to the U.S. seeking religious
> freedom
I wasn't referring to the myth that "the colonists came to these blessed shores to obtain freedom of religion." BS -- most of them came because they lost out in religious power struggles in their native countries and fled for their lives or property. Where they had the opportunity to dominate, as in Massachusetts, they lost no time doing so. Christianity in those days (except for the Quakers and a few others) was basically an ideology justifying keeping everyone else around you under your thumb. It is this characteristic that has been handed down over the generations in many U.S. Christian groups, leading to the "fascism" that Woj deplores.
> American religiosity pursues "morality and virtue" through fear and
> rightneousness; it is a mov!
> ement against freedom and generated out of the fear of freedom. It is
> hell on earth. As a native american friend put it once, "when I hear
> all these people talk about "spirituality," I think they should wash
> their mouths out with soap."
Look at the Salem witch trials and the "Great Awakenings" which occurred periodically in U.S. history. This kind of religiosity is nothing new at all.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below. -- Joseph Addison, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day