Attack of the Theocrats!: How the Religious Right Harms Us All—and What We Can Do About It

by Faircloth, Sean

  Medical, technical, and scientific innovation shall be dedicated to the health and advancement of our fellow citizens and must never be impeded by religious bias.

  Let us linger on this last point, for it captures something essential and inspiring. Important ideals—and real lives—are at stake. When we betray stem cell research, we betray our fellow human beings. When we betray the scientific method, we betray the human spirit at its very best.

  Our cause, the cause of Secular Americans—as the principles described herein demonstrate—is sacred. That’s right. Sacred. Progress today, progress in 2050, and progress a thousand years from now will be based most significantly on our commitment to Enlightenment values. Evidence will guide our conclusions. Compassion will guide our actions. This is the essence of secular social action.

  This incremental improvement—step by step, piece by piece, evidence upon evidence, idea upon idea—stands as the most important guiding tool of our species. There is indeed “a grandeur to this view of life,” as Darwin put it.

  Our Secular Decade plan sets out achievable goals to significantly improve our nation. It will require all of us to work together with every ounce of our reason, our devotion, our passion. If together we achieve the steps I’ve described in this plan by 2020, we will have reached a tipping point that will lead us to an even greater America—one based on our founding principles.

  Reason and Innovation from the Top of the World

  America must speak from the mountaintop once again. Our great secular future—like our great secular past—will be one of innovation, of science, and of the ever-churning competition of new ideas. Our future America must be an America where the tinkerer and the garage inventor are hailed as heroes, and the shysters and “prosperity” preachers are prosecuted for misuse of funds.

  JFK liked to quote Aristotle, that happiness is life lived along lines of excellence. We loved Kennedy’s patriotic vision of American exceptionalism. America the beautiful? Sure. But Kennedy inspired us to be America the best. When we set the goal of sending a man to the moon, when we led in science, when we aspired to equal opportunity for all our citizens, America was indeed exceptional in the best sense of that word. We did stand out, and the world loved us for it. Kennedy’s picture was in huts in Africa, in villages in India. Think of the sheer boldness of it.

  Conservative columnist George Will had his finger on a central issue when he wrote in a January 2, 2011, column: “From 1970 to 1995, federal support for research in the physical sciences, as a fraction of gross domestic product, declined 54 percent; in engineering, 51 percent. On a per-student basis, state support of public universities has declined for more than two decades and was at the lowest level in a quarter-century before the current economic unpleasantness. Annual federal spending on mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering now equals only the increase in health-care costs every nine weeks.”

  Sadly America must look elsewhere for a glimpse of the secular America of 2050 to which we must aspire. Consider innovation in Sweden. The public and the private sectors in Sweden allocate nearly 4 percent of GDP to research and development (R&D) annually, which makes Sweden one of the countries that invest most in R&D as a percentage of GDP. Sweden tops Europe in comparative statistics both in terms of research investments as a percentage of GDP as well as in the number of published scientific works per capita.

  Sweden can’t be bothered with endless discussion about creationism, or about ancient sexual restrictions on women and minorities. Sweden innovates while America rehashes debates long settled elsewhere. Sweden often leads the world in medical science and is also among the top in natural science and engineering in terms of the number of scientific publications per capita.

  Swedish inventors held a total of 33,523 patents in the United States as of 2007, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Only ten other countries hold more patents than Sweden. Think about the size of the Swedish population to understand the scale of this accomplishment. With less than 10 million citizens, its more than thirty times smaller than the United States. Of the nine nations with more patents, eight are large-population countries. Only very secular Switzerland is a smaller country on the list, a nation (remember patent clerk Einstein) that was already a patent capital in the early twentieth century. Indeed, the industrial countries in the top ten are among the most secular nations on Earth.

  How does saving a life every six minutes strike you as an accomplishment? It resulted from Volvo’s capitalism and innovation with the three-point seat belt. In the book Sweden: Up North, Down to Earth, the authors state that “Swedes are some of the world’s fastest people at adapting to new trends and ideas, and are constantly on the cusp of a groundbreaking innovation.”

  Sweden went from a frozen and poverty-stricken outpost in the late 1800s to the nation of the zipper and ball bearing in the twentieth century to Skype today. Swedes don’t just come up with new ideas, they bring innovative ideas to market. In May 2010 Sweden ranked as the most competitive European Union country according to the World Economic Forum, followed by two other very secular nations, Denmark and Finland.

  Sweden’s government also consistently ranks as one of the most transparent and noncorrupt. Phil Zuckerman writes persuasively about the quality of life in secular nations in a piece published January 16, 2011, by the Council for Secular Humanism titled “Is Faith Good for Us?”

  The 2004 United Nations’ Human Development Report, which ranks 177 countries on a Human Development Index, measured such indicators of societal health as life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, and educational attainment. According to this report, the five top nations in terms of human development were Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. All had notably high degrees of organic atheism. Furthermore, of the top twenty-five nations, all but Ireland and the United States were nations with some of the highest percentages of nontheism on Earth. Conversely, the bottom fifty countries of the Human Development Index lacked statistically significant levels of organic atheism.

  As Zuckerman further points out, the most nontheistic nations have the lowest infant-mortality rates. The most religious nations have the highest infant-mortality rates. He reveals the same trend with regard to homicide rates. He points to a 2003 study which found that nations with the highest illiteracy rates were all highly religious. The highly irreligious nations in Scandinavia, which offer widespread sex education and birth-control access, have the lowest HIV and AIDS rates. According to a 2004 study, the most irreligious nations were the most likely to treat women and girls equally. The nations with the most sexist policies tend to be the most religious.

  I will not attempt to prove here a direct causal relationship between secularism and a healthy strong society, but I will say secularism sure doesn’t seem to hurt. In particular, as a strong proponent of innovation and capitalism, I am very impressed by the emphasis on R&D in Sweden, as well as on securing patents. Our nation has lost sight of innovation and quality of life as the standards for rational government decision making.

  Another example: American Nobel Prize–winning economist James Heckman makes a strong, evidence-based case for early childhood education leading to economic strength. Pay for executives at America’s largest firms has quadrupled—in real dollars—since the 1970s, which might be fine—if American executives made smart long-term choices. However, gearing decisions to the next quarterly report and the next golden parachute for themselves does nothing to match the more strategic decisions Swedes have made to invest in early childhood education so as to secure the excellent return on investment to which economic evidence points.

  Sweden’s sister country, Denmark, is rated the “most happy nation on earth” by the World Values Survey, conducted by Ron Inglehart and funded by the National Science Foundation. Average Danish citizens themselves report these highest levels of happiness. Inglehart discerns four common factors in the happiest nations: prosperity; a functioning democracy; high l
evels of social tolerance; and personal freedom (e.g., gender equality).

  Danes are often rated, even more so than Swedes, as the most secular people on earth. Consider that high levels of social tolerance and personal freedom are very difficult to achieve in countries where religious dogma holds sway. A central tenet of fundamentalist Christianity and fundamentalist Islam is suppression of sexual minorities and opposition to many forms of equal rights for women.

  As Phil Zuckerman has said, Danes and Swedes, spectacularly secular, find meaning in life through work, family, causes, traditions, nature, love, and good works. Instead of arguing about how some ancient document requires the shunning of other human beings, they address issues rationally. As a result, they have bus systems that work, pragmatic health coverage, and low crime rates. These innovative capitalist countries have the lowest church attendance of any place in the Western world. And what else do we find there? These innovative capitalist countries, according to the testimony of the people themselves, create a far better quality of life than Americans themselves report.

  Saab and Volvo are respected innovators. America has a dual culture in business. The big corporate bureaucracy (think of our auto industry leading up to the 2008 disaster) and the innovators in our computer industry. Redmond, Washington, and Silicon Valley count among the most secular places in America, places of real innovation and capitalism. I love this country. My competitive blood flows, not out of hostility, but out of admiration for the Scandinavians. America must not be satisfied with its pockets of innovation—innovation must be our defining business practice.

  A Culture of Innovation Protected by Jefferson’s Wall

  The Tea Party folks are exactly right about the Founders, but not in the way they think. The Constitution and the Enlightenment ideals of Jefferson and Madison make America, yes, exceptional, and the greatest nation in the history of the world. An eagerness to innovate must be our definitive characteristic, not some rigid adherence to the past. The Swedes of the twenty-first century can make a better case that they embody the innovative, freedom-loving values of our Founders. Religious fundamentalists are doing all they can to move America away from the values of Madison and Jefferson. Many Tea Party folks love to play dress-up in Jefferson-era clothes, all while undermining the very ideals he espoused.

  We have an opportunity to challenge ourselves and make America even better. We will get to that secular America in 2050, perhaps earlier. We have good examples of great secular results with the experience of Sweden and Denmark—and with the experience of our own past. It is up to us. This decade right now is pivotal. I pledge to devote myself to the Secular Decade plan. We must do this together. Let’s make this decade count.

  We must protect the religious liberties guaranteed in the Constitution, including the rights of the so-called Moral Majority and their allies to express their ideas with absolute freedom. However, special privileges based on their religious bias, or anyone’s religious bias, must be removed from our laws.

  We must devote ourselves to rebuilding Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state, a wall that has crumbled so terribly these last thirty years. We must reinvigorate a culture of innovation. And if we do these things, a great America will become even greater, a proud America will become even prouder. We can still catch up to and surpass our friends the Swedes and the Danes and every nation. This will happen when America chooses to. That is the American way. As Secular Americans we will join with our many good-hearted religious friends to achieve this goal—but we Secular Americans, because of the unique perspective we share with Jefferson, will lead the way.

  A Future Worthy of Our History

  I am very optimistic. Our vision, the secular vision, is one which increasingly finds fertile ground throughout the entire world. President Jimmy Carter has visited over 125 nations since leaving the White House. Carter said, “You hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems.” When the silver ball drops New Year’s Eve, they play “Imagine.” In numerous surveys, average citizens name “Imagine” as the greatest song of all time. Average people worldwide know the words.

  Madison and Lennon had little in common. Madison was deeply educated and refined. Lennon began as an uneducated rock obsessive. Yet through their lives, Madison, a lawyer, and Lennon, a poet, each grew to care most deeply about improving the ways in which human beings treat each other and longed for a world in which we, as the Greeks wrote, tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of the world.

  Madison imagined a Constitution as a human, and humanist, mechanism, a tool evolving toward a more compassionate world, the specifics of which Madison knew he could not foresee. “Imagine,” now a world anthem, constitutes a vision for the future, a longing that grows with each passing generation. The song embodies an optimism and wisdom that Lennon foresaw for his sons and future generations. Madison and Lennon call us to a humanist ideal, to a world where ancient hostilities and ancient restrictions fall away in favor of a world lit by rationality and compassion. Together we must move closer to the world Lennon and Madison so wisely imagined—but our efforts are not yet worthy of their greatness.

  Secular Americans have been known for opposing a crèche in the town square. Now we must be known for organizing to stop fundamentalists from denying condoms and basic science-based education to poverty stricken people in Uganda and other parts of the developing world.

  Secular Americans have been known for opposing so-called ceremonial deism such as the National Day of Prayer. Now we must be known for standing up to the theocratic legal concept that religious schools, because they are religious schools, have the right to punish children physically.

  Secular Americans have been known for opposing “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Now we must be known for working to oppose the big con job pulled by megaministers who live in palaces—subsidized by special tax loopholes that only they get—and stopping this vast fleecing of the American taxpayer.

  Secular Americans have been known for opposing crosses on public land. Now we must be known for actively opposing textbooks that tell lies to children with our tax dollars.

  Secular Americans have been known for opposing “In God We Trust” on coins. Let us now be known for stepping up to protect children from the “faith healers” who praise their own religiosity as they leave children to suffer and sometimes die.

  I began this book with the story of Abraham. We should remember that story; it is part of the world’s cultural heritage. But we must also remember the true story of two-year-old Amiyah White dying alone in a van. We should remember the story of fifteen-year-old Jessica Crank and her horribly torturous untreated tumor, which lead to her needless death. We cannot sit silently as Abraham is authorized to kill his child. Not in this century. Not with our laws. Not under our Constitution.

  Maybe if we consider relinquishing the view that we are going to get out of this world alive and face the humble reality that what we do for others here is what lasts, then we might better remember victims like Amiyah White. Perhaps the essence of life is not policing other people’s sex lives, not asking some supernatural being for favors. Perhaps the essence of life is actually doing the right thing for our fellow human beings—right here and right now.

  Unless we act, more children will die, more children will suffer. Their deaths require a human and humanist call to justice, a moral imperative that connects directly to Madison’s humanist Constitution. The vicious McCarthy era forced upon us “one nation under God” when we are really one nation under the Constitution. We have a moral obligation to fulfill our humanist heritage, a heritage that America’s Constitution embodied first and most boldly. We Irish have a saying: we lost all the wars, but we had all the good songs. Well, the poets, the writers, the philosophers, and the greatest statesmen, they’re on our side—but that’s not sufficient.

  Like the best goals, the Secular Decade strategic plan is both romantic and pragmatic. Together we c
an make our nation even greater by living our Enlightenment ideals with full passion and commitment. In this time, with this plan, we will succeed.

  Afterword

  Justice William Brennan was, without doubt, one of the ten most influential Supreme Court Justices in American history. I will happily debate whether he lands at number four or three on that list. But, for now, just note that conservatives, many of whom despise Brennan’s legal thinking, concede that Brennan was hugely influential.

  Yet, Justice Brennan’s death was noted only in passing in the year-end retrospectives of 1997. You know the ones—the retrospectives we read in Time and USA Today during the news lull between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Who received the lion’s share of attention? Lady Diana.

  Lady Diana was beautiful, had a sensational wedding—and an even more sensational divorce—and did commendable work regarding land mines. I have no beef with her, but this juxtaposition—Lady Di’s image everywhere, Justice Brennan’s life rarely noted—struck me, and led me to contemplate in earnest the idea of death—and the legacy we leave behind.

  In many ways, this contemplation is an extension of my own longstanding attempts at trying to come to grips with the idea of our own mortality. Even when I was younger, I thought a lot about death. The topic needn’t be entirely morose. Woody Allen’s movie Love and Death captures some essentials. Harold and Maude is a classic. But few can match the immortal Life of Brian. When dealing with death who better to learn from than the best Christ stand-in ever? Life of Brian should be required in all philosophy and religion classes. Graham Chapman may be dead, but his Brian will live forever. Whenever my father would talk about this or that famous person, my question was always, when did he or she die? I wanted to understand what they had gotten done and how long it had taken them to get it done.