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HispanicVista Columnists

By Sal Osio, JD

From the Publisher's Corner

Mi Punto de Vista

 

Freedom from Religion

By Sal Osio, JD

     Arguably the most influential among our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, viewed as his greatest contribution to our embryonic democracy, in addition to education, the separation of church and state – Freedom of religion and its corollary, which he deemed equally as important, Freedom from religion. In his day the church dominated politics. In addition to the mandatory, local government enforced, tithe to support the church, the clergy openly advocated government policies and influenced the selection of representatives. He feared that the integration of church and state would create a theocracy at the expense of a democracy. Freedom of worship cannot exist in a religiously controlled government, unless of course it is one’s religion that is in control.

 Several attempts have been made in America’s history by religious groups to control government policies and the election of public officials; to enforce their own morals on others. To some religious groups it is not enough to recommend moral values and standards to their own followers. They seek to impose their will on others through the political process. Moral convictions relating to abortion and gay unions are sought to become the law governing all despite good faith differences in moral values.

 Should government legislate morals? If so, whose morals? Should a dominant religious group control the reigns of government? In the alternative, should the role of government be restricted to national security, the promotion of public safety, the regulation of trade, commerce and immigration, for the general welfare of the people based on constitutional mandates and safeguards? Or as Jesus Christ is quoted as saying in support of the separation of church and state, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s”?

 In America we face an enormous threat: The control of our government by a dominant religious community - the Evangelical religious network. The encroachment took a serious turn when former president George W. Busch, under the direction of Karl Rove, successfully converted the Evangelical network into a political apparatus. This intrusion of religion into the electorate and political process, government itself, is exactly what Jefferson feared the most. As an antidote to clerical abuse, he advocated the education of the electorate in the hope that a majority would be guided by reason and common sense, informed decisions, as opposed to dogma, fear of damnation, and moral edicts.

 A disturbing trend in the encroachment of religion is the current campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Following the Busch/Rove precedent, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a hub of the Evangelical community, seeks to emulate his predecessor. He has staged national prayer gatherings, paid for and sponsored by Evangelical affinity groups, such as the one in August of this year, and makes no excuse for his pandering to the ‘born against Christian’ – the Evangelical religious right - for political support. Already the Evangelical electorate has dominant influence over the GOP as evidenced by the gay rights and abortion platforms of the party, moral issues which override the economic and unemployment crisis.

As a discredit to his character and the moral authority to uphold the Constitution and govern the American people, Rick Perry refused to distance himself for Pastor Jeffress.  In fact, he bathed on the irreverent endorsement.

By way of a footnote, the Mormon religion is a Christian faith. Mormons believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Resurrection. What separated the religion from mainline Christianity is that in addition to the bible they also believe that Joseph Smith, its founder, was a prophet (www.josephsmith.net). Those interested in clarifying and expanding on my explanation should consult the official version in www.mormon.org or www.lds.org.

Our online publication, HVC, has been inundated by Evangelical affinity groups attempting to influence the Hispanic vote by discrediting the GOP candidates, Mitt Romney and Jon Hunstman because of their Mormon faith. Of worthy note we received a reference to a slanderous Web site -  www.mormonzeitgeist.com  - which attempts to discredit the Mormon Church as racist – White supremacist – anti Hispanic, and anti-Christian.

The contrary is true, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and Jews are the most ardent in the support of the Hispanic community and compassion for the treatment of undocumented immigrants. They recognize, uniformly as do almost all Hispanics, that it is the right and the obligation of our country to protect and secure its borders and regulate immigration; and, that it is the plenary and exclusive power of the federal government, as opposed to the individual states, to accomplish these objectives. They are opposed to the marginalization and abuse of the human rights of these illegal immigrants in our country who sought economic refuge by filling a gap in the boom years of our economy, notably in agriculture, the service and construction, low wage industries. True Christians, men of conscience, do not favor that we demonize and spit out the workers who came to complement our needs on the basis that we no longer need them now during our great recession.

The Mormons, in fact, have taken the lead in advocating a fair and compassionate solution to the immigration issue. An excerpt from their official position follows: “What to do with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now residing in various states within the United States is the biggest challenge in the immigration debate.  The bedrock moral issue for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is how we treat each other as children of God.”  LDS goes on to advocate a just and compassionate solution by our federal government without punitive enforcement by individual states. The official statement of LDS on immigration dated June 2011 may be accessed on their web site www.newsroom.lds.org. 

Also, of interest to the Hispanic community is the LDS commitment to the Hispanic culture: A majority of Mormon missionaries, a two year ministry requirement of all Mormons, is in Latin America. This explains why 40% of the LDS membership is in Latin America.

We strongly recommend that our fellow Hispanic Americans make informed decisions free of bigotry, free of fear and based on an analysis of the relevant issues and in the exercise of common sense. HVC neither endorses nor opposes the candidacy of either of the two Mormon GOP aspirants, Mitt Romney and Jon Hunstsman. That decision should be made by the voter based on the merits of their platforms free of religious bias. However, we entreat all Latinos to value the friendship and respect of the Church of LDS that is the bond among us.

When Governor Mitt Romney inched past Perry in the polls, the Evangelical lobby reacted with vengeance. A leading spokesman, the Pastor Robert Jeffress, representing the Dallas Evangelical community, openly endorsed Perry and attempted to disparage Romney, a Mormon, by insulting his religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (LDS). He referred to the Mormon faith as a cult, non-Christian, and a threat to American Christianity. He also attached other religions, including Islam, Hindu philosophy and Buddhism on the basis that they are not Christian. He was clever enough to exclude Judaism, a non Christian faith, I assume because American Jews wield enormous political power. His objective, as is the Evangelical platform, is to get one of its own elected to the presidency, another Bush, albeit engaging in the religious constitutional encroachment on the separation of church and state.

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Sal Osio is the Publisher of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at SPosio@aol.com