We humans support about 4,300 religions and 7,000 living language cultures around the world, and representatives of most are here in the United States beneath the magnificent umbrella of a working secular democratic republic as designed by the Founding Fathers.

Americans true to that spirit have the freedom to worship as each sees fit.

Some like Lauren Boebert flat out lie or live in their own delusions with insufficient confrontation or insight.

Two terms I have found helpful with relation to observing fascistic religious extremism: “Civilizational Narcissism”, Mobarak Haider’s term related to his view of the Taliban in Taliban: Tip of a Holy Iceberg, and “Malignant Narcissism“, which may be regarded as the political interpretation of “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” much characterized by “messianic delusions of grandeur” and represented by autocratic personalities worldwide.

Around the web (Twitter, lol, sometimes here on FB), I’ve been using #MaligNarcs and #PolitCrims to signal these archaic dimensions in leadership.

Christian Fanaticism, Christian Violence

The above mash-up, most appropriate for this day in the America (or #Jan6), has come off Alejandro Amenábar’s film Agora, as fine an exploration of the tension between faith and reason and between the lust for power and the imposing of a delusional, narcissistic, and sadist will on others possessed of more quiet, certain, and thoughtful virtues.

Related Online

AFP. “‘God Put You in Power’: Russian Orthodox Leader Tells Putin on 70th Birthday.” The Moscow Times, October 7, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “KGB FSB ROC M-O-N-E-Y”. BackChannels, January 18, 2023.

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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who faces a primary election Tuesday, says she is “tired” of the U.S. separation of church and state, a long-standing concept stemming from a “stinking letter” penned by one of the Founding Fathers.

Speaking at a religious service Sunday in Colorado, she told worshipers: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”

Suliman, Adela and Timothy Bella. “GOP Rep. Boebert: ‘I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk’.” The Washington Post, June 28, 2022.

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Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. 1776. Source as noted at URL.

Ryman, Hana M. and J. Mark Alcorn. “Establishment Clause (Separation of Church and State).” The First Amendment Encyclopedia. 2009.

United States of America. The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription. Original as inscribed by Jacob Shallus. National Archives.

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