Invent your God?

(Christian Gallery News Service, August 4, 2006) Whoopi Goldberg's one person Broadway show recently broadcast on HBO contained a segment about God, Holy Scripture and religion. After delivering her extensive analysis of the subject in her undeniably gifted comedic manner, the Whoopster concluded, "The United States of America is the place where people have the right to believe anything they want to believe about God." The audience began to clap as she paused, then as the audience rose to its feet in a spontaneaous standing ovation, she added, "THAT'S JUST WHO WE ARE!"

A CNN article posted on August 4, 2006 demonstrates one consequence of such a definition of "WHO WE ARE." The article was headlined, "Tutor says sex assaults are sacred ritual: 'I am a pedophile,' says man acting as own lawyer."

Phillip Distasio is the man's name. He was in court because he had been arrested and charged with "74 counts including rape, pandering obscenity to minors and corrupting another with drugs." He is accused of "molesting two disabled boys he tutored at his home and raping seven autistic boys at a Cleveland school for special-needs students where he was a teacher's aide. All but one of the victims were under 13."

And what did Mr. Distasio have to say for himself when he got his day in court? He says he is "the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries." He explained the "ministry" of his church: "I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years," he said in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Wednesday. "The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms."

Reread the last paragraph and you will see that Phillip Distasio believes he is called by god to have sex with children who "consent to sex" with him. Furthermore, his god is calling him to mount what the CNN article called a "religious freedom defense" so his church can change the American legal system so that his "ministry to children" will be legalized.

Now let's put the facts about Mr. Distasio in perspective with the facts about Whoopi Goldberg and her standing ovation Broadway audience.

Mr. Distasio is a living embodiment of the idea that the United States of America is the nation that gives everyone the right to believe anything they want to believe about god. Mr. Distasio's actions demonstrate the meaning of his beliefs in god. He is proving his belief by bringing his "religious freedom defense" to a courtroom near you. Has the audience given Mr. Distasio a standing ovation? If not, why not? If the Whoopster--who is a High Priestess if there ever was one--has found the operative definition of our corporate self-image as a nation, the operative answer to the question Who Are We?, and that answer is we are the nation that gives everyone the right to believe anything they want to believe about god, then why is the audience not rushing to Mr. Pedophile Distasio's defense?

You know the answer even if you have never noticed you know.

This is not a nation that gives everyone the right to believe anything they want to believe about God: this is the nation that pretends to give everyone the right to believe anything they want to believe about God.

In fact, as Mr. Distasio's case proves very neatly, this nation is a nation that gives everyone the right to believe anything they want to believe about God as long as the federal and State governments supported by the majority of people in this nation agrees with that belief. Believe anything else and sooner or later you will find yourself in Court...or worse, you will find real fire and brimstone coming at you.

Mr. Pedophile Distasio allows us to see the true operative religion in the USA today. We the people have raised up a new religion on earth, one that we the people are making up as we go along. As long as you agree with what the powers that be supported by the operative majority believe about god, then you can expect a standing ovation. Believe anything else and there will be hell to pay.

But wait: Is that really a new religion? Is there a real difference between the dictatorship of the majority and the dictatorship of the proletariat? Or is the difference in name only?
Welcome to the new nation that goes by the name United States of America.