Some Christians Are Already On A Fooll's Mission

William Donohue (click here for a bio), who is an old-school Catholic religious activist and President of the Catholic League, has just written an article in reaction to a poll that shows that in a number of nations, more people see religion as being more of a threat than a resource. This is particularly true in European nations. There are some exceptions to that view however,  The people of Japan disagreed with perception despite the fact that Japan is not a strongly religious country (click here for the article).

One of the countries that has one of the highest rates of disapproval of religion was Belgium. And one of Donohue's responses to their poll numbers was to examine the moral state of the nation. Some of the criteria used by Donohue include the following: out-of-wedlock birthrate, rate of people who join Islamic terrorists, and the rate of assisted suicide with the claim that those with mental illnesses or autism are 'routinely' killed. BTW, when reviewing the stories on assisted suicide in Belgium, I didn't see confirmation of that last claim.  I did see it stated that a certain suffering from mental illness could qualify one to successfully apply for assisted suicide. And interesting enough was a story about how some people from other nations go to Belgium in order to undergo assisted suicide.

Before examining Belgium, Donohue listed a number of traits that are less pronounced in the religious than the non-religious. They include:

• depression
• suicide
• juvenile delinquency
• crime
• STDs 

Donohue goes on to claim that Jude-Christian values are essential to the 'personal and social well-being in Western nations. And thus he attempts to discredit the poll numbers. In addition, he goes on to say that if one gives up on Christianity, one must surrender a morality that is necessary for a well-functioning society.

Though Donohue might have some valid individual points to make, his old-school authoritarianism has blinded him to why a growing number in the West see religions as posing more of a threat to society than a service to it. In other words, there is a morality that has been missing in Christianity. Europe's religious wars might have clued Dononhue in on the fact that the filter he used in measuring a nation's moral state was too small. In addition, Western Imperialism, which flourished while both America and Europe were still considered to be predominantly Christian nations, seems to contradict Donohue's perceived cause and effect relationship between Christianity and morality. And none of that includes America's persecution of people of color whether its victims consisted of Native Americans,  Blacks, or people of color from other nations most of which occurred while America could be considered a Christian nation. What was also left behind was  Conservative Christianity's support for the exploitive economic system called Capitalism.


In other words, while focusing solely on pet individual sins that religiously conservative Christians love to target, Donohue appears to be able to make a point. But once we get into the realm of Western Civilization's history with committing what has been called 'corporate sins,'  we see that morality does not always follow Christianity just as Israel's treatment of the Palestinians shows that morality does not always follow Judaism. And it is corporate sins that probably has nations like Belgium perceiving Christianity as being more of a threat than a resource.