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2021-02-03

Do religion and politics mix?

The Americans are famous for their religious fervour, and the Founding Fathers based their Declaration of Independence upon their religious outlook. Protestant Christianity and politics have been intertwined at root in America from the beginning.

In the UK the Christian faith has been espoused  by our monarchs for centuries (even if not fully and faithfully implemented - leaders throughout history have never been slow to co-opt religion for their own purposes).

As a result, we the English have historically tempered our overt Christian expression to fit pragmatically with the prevailing religious fervour favoured by our monarchs, and for good reason - the battle between protestants and Catholics for supremacy of thought saw too many people burned for their pains.

Some might say that the Church of England's failure to stand against our government's wholesale assault on our traditional freedoms (including the freedom to worship together in Church!) simply continues that habitual surrender to temporal authority.

The Pilgrim Fathers however declined to bend to the authority of the Church, and left England for pastures new - theirs was a "bottom up" faith based on personal conviction, in direct opposition to the top down religious dogma demanded by the Church.

Now those Christian Americans that supported Trump and prayed for his victory in the election (as I'm sure did many of the faithful around the world, who recognised that America holds a powerful influence over the future of their own nations) are left contemplating a "globalist" world future, wondering just how that will turn out, why God has not answered their prayers, and how they should engage with the new circumstances.

This is one reaction, from the American Christian perspective, to this situation (30 minutes):

 

Like /Dislike this video here.