Republicans fear Donald Trump not because of his tragi-comic imitation of Der F�hrer, but because he bids fair to blow up what's left of their already fractured party by leading the mob to who knows what.
Solution? Put up an alternative who -- as party leaders say -- is a free-market conservative who hates regulation (excepting that legislated to frustrate the operation of Planned Parenthood or to complicate for suspect minorities the right to vote), who believes taxes should be cut to the quick for the most affluent and stands four-square for religious liberty.
Let us dispense with the "free-market" fantasy. The market, so-called, is anything but free. It is manipulated right and left -- mostly right -- to benefit corporations and their investors. Phooey on regulations, it is said. They're job-killers. Taxes? A scourge right up there with the 10 plagues suffered by Pharaoh and his lot at the hands of Yahweh.
But "religious liberty"? What does anyone think that means? Can it mean that you may set an agenda for me based on your beliefs however arrived at? Does it mean that I can refuse to obey the law of the land because a certain biblical passage urges me to do otherwise? See Psalm 137:9.
What, pray tell, do we mean by "religion"? It is not my wont to take down the dog-eared Bible from the shelf to seek a definition because, were I to find one, it would only apply to those whose book it is. Anything in the Bible would not apply to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Taoists or Rotarians.
However, figuring that most American politicians who so fervently demand "religious liberty" would be thinking of religion as having something to do with the Hebrew/Christian Bible, I turn quickly to the Epistle of James, chapter one verse 27 and read: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God ... is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
Pretty clear, except the terminal word "world." Its original meaning was "adornments" or "trappings." So, for Christians, not only is religion caring for orphans and widows in their distress, but eschewing the trappings -- or one might say the unearned or undeserved ornaments of life.
Unless I am very much mistaken, anyone who desires to act on religious liberty with that biblical understanding in mind has plenty before him to do. And it is liberty, not license. Religious liberty does not, cannot mean circumscribing the human rights of others citing contrary religious beliefs. In a republic in which religion and politics are by design separate entities and in which the establishment of religion is clearly prohibited, ignoring laws on the basis of religious dogma cannot be tolerated.
What's more, the expansive latitude the First Amendment affords the exercise of religion is remarkable, considering what we know of other nations where religion is stuffed down the throats of people.
In America, anyone can purchase a piece of property and the edifice on it or build a new one and call it a church, synagogue or mosque and watch the property tax exemption take immediate effect. And not only that. Such property is entitled to police and fire protection for which its congregants pay not one red cent. Tax exemptions are the financial lifeblood of religious institutions.
From its ambo or pulpit can be said almost anything but falsely crying "fire" should the sanctuary be filled with worshippers. Think of the nonsense that can be spoken in such a place. It can be said there with no hesitation whatsoever that Earth is but 6,000 years old, that no evolution of species occurred, that the apocalypse is nearly upon us, that only he or she who heeds these words shall be saved ad nauseam. No law has yet been devised to prohibit the utterance of any such rot.
What the Republican elite seeks is a candidate who will engage in religious license under the guise of liberty to diminish the human rights of those whose voices are effectively drowned out by the cataracts of money sluicing down from the heights of untold wealth into the campaign funds of lickspittle bidding-doers.
No. Religion, at least for the Christian who knows his or her Bible, is what St. James said it is: to minister to orphans and widows in their distress and to shake off the trappings of excess that divert attention from those who need and deserve it.