There are many kinds of separation. There’s the pining separation from a loved one, the painful separation of flesh from bone, the boggling separation of anyone from their senses, the mysterious post partum separation and the fundamentally important, albeit fictitious, separation of church and state. One thing that troubles me about the lack of this last separation, (the most fundamental principle — making way for freedom and equality — upon which this country was established), is that right wing ‘Constitutionistas’ are constantly waving, (rather than reading), that document to promote any wild-haired agenda they may be promoting or protesting in the name of god…well, their god, anyway.
When Justice Vaughn Walker made his ruling to overturn CA Prop 8 on the grounds that it limits individual equality as guaranteed by the Constitution, there should have also been reference to the fact that, in the United States of America, marriage is a civil union, not a religious one, and that church, (any church), law, moral or divine dictum has no sway as to who may or may not participate. There is little doubt that the opposition to same sex marriage is a religious crusade, (perhaps an overreaction to the rampant and now very public sexual misconduct by priests and evangelical leaders looking to blame gayness — not to be confused with gaiety — as the root of spousal misbehavior). Anyone that choses to follow dogma that sets you aflame for all eternity or offers prizes in the hereafter for toeing the line, certainly has the Constitutional right to do so. However, that same Constitution says that those particular beliefs have no voice in the law of the land. So, the Mormons, (who were a major force in rallying the votes to pass Prop 8), should just keep their polygamitic asses in Salt Lake and any other church leader that wants to espouse absolute knowledge received from a magical deity can bite me!
I know, I know, the ‘bite me’ is probably not very helpful in getting my point across, and, oh, yes, I am aware that there has never really been a separation of church and state in the US. Sure, we have token rulings against prayer in schools, but we pray in the Senate and the House every day; and, don’t ya know, we are all “one nation under god”; everybody from the President on down ends every speech, (and most sneezes), by asking god to bless us; and Christmas, as far as I can tell, is a national holiday.
Excuse me while I oversimplify, but every bad thing we do to one another we do in the name of religion. We are on the brink of an all-out religious war that will bring us to armageddon, (or whatever the end-of-the-world word is in all of those heavenly holy books), and it won’t be the result of divine preordination. It will be because we have failed to separate ourselves from an ancient need for magical bullshit. No god or messenger therefrom ever gave anyone the keys to the kingdom or knowledge of a power greater than our collective selves. We are all just passengers on a rock spinning in space with the choice to find a way to coexist or to play ‘my god is greater than your god’ until the loud poof that turns us all to ashes.
Damn! What I meant to say was, “Please, pass the salt!”