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What is the state religion in the United States? The constitution states that we have none, but I believe we have become some sort of bizarre money worshipping cult. Money from religious organizations pour into political campaigns every election cycle, and entire swaths of our nation are swayed by religious leaders, into supporting various candidates and issues. Everything in this country has become politicized, and nearly everything that has been politicized, has been religionized.
I was brought up in a Catholic household in the Northeast. My childhood education, a good one, was in Catholic schools. I left Catholic school, and with it much of my Catholic faith, in the fifth grade.
Through college I went through a phase of railing against the worlds religions, blaming them for much of humanities past and present problems. I grew out of that, found spirituality in a way that works for me, and educated myself on the good that the world’s religions have provided – of which there is plenty. Take Catholic charities for example, or the empowerment Christian missionaries provided poor and working class people in Central America, before they were wiped out for political reasons.
My eyes were opened when I read the Aldous Huxley book, “The Perennial Philosophy,” in which he points out the similarities and common principles of love and goodwill that all of the world’s religions preach.
What religious text actually says, and what people claim it says, are two very different things.
Having made peace with that resentment, I still have a major problem with religion. Not the traditional religions of the world, but the contemporary gods we worship – the cults of money and power.
America has embraced a type of fanatical capitalism unparalleled in any other country on the planet. Money is the god of our present time, and we worship it with such a dedication that we wantonly sacrifice our own interests as human beings.
The working class – especially the white working class – vote against their interests every election cycle. They choose big business, right wing candidates because those candidates represent money and power, and to some degree a perceived sense of masculinity.
The United States also has one of the poorest social safety nets, despite being the richest country in the world. Our maternity leave is among the worst in the world, and our paternity leave is non-existent. If your lucky to have a “generous employer”, you may have 2 weeks paid vacation per year, which by the way, none of which are mandated by law. Most of us have even less. In comparison, every country in the European Union, by law, provides 4 weeks of paid vacation.
How did we get such an abysmal record on workers rights and benefits? We allowed it. We consistently elect candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, who enact policies, which have virtually dismantled unions and workers rights groups. We have sacrificed our own individual good, and societies greater good, at the altar of profit. The corporations laugh all the way to the bank, like the televangelists who fly in private jets.
Workers rights and organized labor have successfully been put in the “socialism” box, and therefore blasted into the ether of political heresy. That’s a great propaganda win for politicians and corporations alike.
Do you want to take your family on vacation this summer? Your kid has a baseball game at 4 p.m.? That’s too bad. You’re a new father whose wife had a baby on Friday? Better be ready for work Monday morning. And why? Profit. The most precious resource any of us have is time, and we freely sacrifice it for an extra buck.
I have been to a lot of funerals, and I have yet to hear anyone’s yearly sales report read as a eulogy.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Michael,
Wonderful article. I wish that this was talked about and being discussed more often in Untied States right now. Money has become “God” for a long time now and we all sacrifice so much of what really matters in life to acquire it. The old saying is true, “who cares if you are the richest person in the cemetery”. Time, we never get a refund on or can take back or put a price on. Thank you for bringing this issue up.