LARRY ROMANOFF • JULY 19, 2020
We already know that Americans have, and treasure, a great many freedoms, but it is not widely known that the freedom of (white) Americans to kill blacks with impunity is actually just a subset of a greater freedom – the freedom of religion. It is this essential connection between God and killing that permits an American policeman to shoot dead a pregnant young mother then escape punishment by a claim to be “lifting the husband and children up in prayer”. If you aren’t American, you won’t understand this.
Right-Wing violence draws much of its nourishment from religion, from a conviction of being “a divine race” (Japanese), of being “God’s Chosen People” (Jews), of having been created in God’s image and thus having God “on my side” (Christian countries). Religion and belligerence are fundamental to a Right-Wing society, and widespread government support for the world’s most dysfunctional religions has always been a major part of American politics, the far-right evangelical Christian church being prominent throughout the US. While the Western God is praised as a God of love and tolerance, more tragic wars and human-rights atrocities have been committed in the name of God and religion than from any other source.
