Dr. Bill Roy: "The Religionists' Party of the United States"

“The Religionists’ Party of the United States”
By
Dr. Bill Roy,
Lawyer, physician and

Congressman (Ks., 2nd dist., ’70 – ‘’74)

Random House Dictionary, Second Edition: "Shari’ah, law seen as deriving from the Koran."

Conservative Muslims believe in one law, that of the Koran. There is no need for a body of civil and criminal law separate from the Koran, which reveals god’s law.

Nations ruled by Shari ‘a worry us. These are the people and the nations we refer to as Islamic fascists, with whom we are told we are in perpetual war. We fear them, because good religionists that they are, they want all nations ruled by law of the Koran, which may conflict with the laws of other nations and international law.

Most of us have only vague ideas of what happens when a nation has only one religion and one law, inseparable and inviolate. We learn bits and pieces of life in Islamic nations. We read, for example, that a woman who was raped in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to death for her role in the rape.

We know women adulterers may be publicly stoned to death (see the movie "The Kite Runners"). And, of course, we know women are to wear a bourka, a loose garments covering the entire body with only an opening for the eyes, and have few of the freedoms of women in western nations.

We have learned women are not permitted to drive in Saudi Arabia, an American ally upon which the world depends for oil. And, we know it is the intent of the Wahabbi Muslim sect, mullahs to the Saudi rulers, to enforce such rules upon visiting American women, and Muslim nations from Egypt to the Philippines

We know that in one sense Iran, once the designated site for our next preemptive war, is a democracy. They have fair, open elections. But laws passed by the Iranian Parliament may be vetoed by ayatollahs, their Muslim religious rulers.

Of course, in the past western nations have been dominated by religionists. The millennium of the Dark Ages extended from the sacking of Rome until the Enlightenment and was marked by religious wars waged by rulers who claimed temporal and heavenly authority.

These wars culminated with the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), fought among Christian sects who devastated central Europe in the name of Jesus. The killings, starvation and pestilence stimulated the reasoning and writings of Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Kant and others who sought the proper role of religion in personal and civil life.

The result was the Great Separation of church and state, and the liberal democratic movement that President George W. Bush has vowed to bring to the people of Iraq and the Middle East.

This is all well and good, except Bush and his party have eagerly become the religionist party of the United States, to the point that Governor Michael Huckabee, one of its leading candidates to succeed Bush, said the following in Michigan on January 14th.

"…I believe it is a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards."

We are told Huckabee--who earlier joined Senator Sam Brownback in publicly denying evolution--was speaking in criticism of some his opponents’ unwillingness to support a human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman.

Governor Huckabee’s defiance of American tradition of separation of church and state, and his announced intent to govern by his interpretation of the Bible--just as some Muslims rule by the Koran--should effectively have eliminated him from gaining his party’s nomination and the White House.

The earth is saturated by the blood of defenders of the revealed word of the living god, whether a Christian god, Muslim god, Jewish god, or secular god.

I like Mike Huckabee, and I like some messages he is receiving from god, e.g., supporting women and children. And he’s articulate, congenial and humorous.

Are Americans willing to turn our nation, and effectively our children’s and grandchildren’s world, over to someone who will govern by divine revelation? Again?

Dr. Roy may be reached at wirroy@aol.com