Patterns

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.—Karl Marx

Most people have heard at least part of this quote—“the opium of the people,” or, alternatively, “opiate of the masses.”  Out of context, it’s enough of a signifier of the thought processes of the socialist transnational progressivist. 

 In context, it’s downright alarming, especially when we take a look at what the government is doing as we sit back and say “I’m not Jewish, so the ghetto means nothing to me.” 

The story that’s the most likely to pass under the average person’s radar is this: the government is denying student loan forgiveness to any who are called to the ministry, or any who choose to work for an evangelical church.  We go on through the current brouhaha over Mandatory Medicaid (also known as Obamacare) forcing Catholic institutions to provide health insurance that covers contraceptives and abortion* to employees, and Catholic hospitals and health providers to provide the same, despite both being horribly contrary to what the Catholic church teaches.   

(I’m sorry, Ms. Dahlkemper, you should have insisted on knowing what was in the bill before voting to pass it.  By your own beliefs, your soul will be judged according to your dereliction of duty to yourself, your constituents, and your God.)

The whole forcing religious employers and health care providers to sin against their own understanding of God’s word isn’t all we’re facing, though.  We’re also facing further infringement upon our Constitutionally-protected right of worship in other ways, such as this.  I will be the first in line to dispense justice to pedophiles, no matter their station in society—in fact, the higher they are on the social ladder (*cough* Sandusky *cough*), the less inclined I am to allow any leniency, because you know they used their position to find more and better victims, as well as hush it up afterwards.  However, that said, I do not think that the government has any right to force the Church to violate the sanctity and confidentiality of the confessional, any more than they have the right to force a psychological-care professional to turn over notes on a patient.   That’s somewhat like forcing someone to testify against themselves (not that our current black-robed tyrants have any problem with that, either).

I think that the ones that think they’re in charge are assuming that most Americans buy into their whole “living document” argument with regards to whether the Constitution is still relevant, or whether it says what it says, or what they think it should mean.  Most of us don’t agree.  I’ll grant it’s not as large of a majority as I’d feel comfortable with, but still.  Our founders meant the Constitution to be written in stone, to be a fetter on government’s desire to control those it should serve. 

What the current totalitarian-leaning regime forgets is that we are not subjects.  We are full citizens, descended from those who left England for unimagined hardships, because they would not go against their religious conscience.  We, the people, will fight not only this mandate, but any trampling of our God-given, Constitutionally-protected rights.

*For some odd reason, abortions and abortion-inducing drugs are considered “contraceptives.”  They’re not.  A contraceptive prevents conception.  An abortion terminates the product of conception.  Two different things, even if the Catholic church holds both a sin.  Personally, I think abortion is murder, but it’s not my job to force my view on others.  That is fully between the individual and God, but don’t expect me to have any sympathy when they realize that they stopped a beating heart, and feel remorse and depression.  Also, don’t expect me to do any less than call a pro-abortion but anti-capital punishment stance hypocritical.