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Sept. 30, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Timothy Snyder, Princeton expert on fascism, cautions autocrats don’t take power; citizens willingly surrender it. Surrendered inches lead to miles.
The Founders didn’t trust any single person or branch of government to have absolute authority. Checks and balances in our first-of-kind government produced the longest-lasting democracy in human history. We became citizens, not subjects.
Christian nation, not voted in, but imposed, makes us subjects again, but whose Christianity? So many variations suggest a refusal to compromise. Government requires compromise, so who will give up dearly held beliefs?
Christian nation offers guidance: Marjorie Taylor Greene, divorced for adultery, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell Jr. Christlike poverty: Kenneth Copeland, $760 million, Joel Osteen, $43 million per year. The Klan offered anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism and referred to itself as a “fraternal Protestant organization that championed white supremacy.” God on your side, apparently allows a wide latitude of behaviors.
The Bible says Original Sin taints all; Aesop advises “be careful what you wish for.”
The Founders knew religious autocracy was the road to hell – which is why the Bill of Rights addresses what you, in government, cannot do to others.
Citizen, yes, subject, no. JOE PETITE Rockbridge County
