Rise of the Faith Market in U.S.

With World War II the United States was awakened like a troubled adolescent and thrust into the heavy role of responsibility to bring might and muscle to aid in a fight against truly oppressive forces. Like many adolenscents who must take on mature responsibility suddenly and unexpectedly, the nation was exuberant when its efforts were crowned with victory. The psychological mix of pride, humility and thankfulness made the young adult nation somewhat giddy and gulible, and new technological breakthroughs brought a festival of personal indulgences as well as new fears.

Not as threatening, presumably, of the new technologies that followed the war was the wonder of television. Indeed the discovery of such a wondrous means of communication was a god-send for those seeking to dispense solace and guidance as evangelical howlers who were still clutching their bible-mill deplomas. Filled with fire to save souls the newly ordained leapt upon the brightly lighted stage in the 1950s to wax forth in theatrical holiness. A new wave of empire-building was to arise out of this: the televangelical corporations.

As international leaders pumped a chill of distrust into the cold war, one result was that it served as a stimulant for the Bible merchants into the 1960s. And then attention was abruptly focused on space conquest: Heaven was being assaulted!

Space technology was well beyond the comprehension of average man. Certainly it was well beyond the scope of those who sought understanding from ancient authors who thought that Earth was the center of Creation. Nonetheless, televagelical hucksters kept the religious atmosphere so murky over space achievements that they transfigured themselves into multimillionaire CEOs of corporate faith systems.

By the late 1970s into the 1990s there were literally dozens of faith-based empires under construction in the US, and various societies around the world found their governments ensnared in the cruel tentacles of religious tyranny. "Faith" was promoted as being somehow oddly anchored in the political control of this material world. So extreme was this concept of spirit/matter connection among some religious activists that it was regarded "holy" to kill anyone that expressed differing ways of acknowledging some higher creative power.

As religious posturing has flourished across the US, so too have incidents of scandal increased--from rampant corporate greed, to stealing of individual rights, to attacking differing cultures without the consent of Congress, to indulgence in cowardly torture of terrorists, etc. The banner under which these modes of conduct were carried out was the crowd-pleaser claim of "faith."

The point of this mini history is that if people are to truly live in harmony and compassion borne from enlightenment there must always be a strong wall maintained between state and religion.