I personally am a lot less concerned with the national debt, still pretty concerned but not as much, as I am with the state of our nations politics and its reliance on big business and religion.
I'd be less concerned about organized religion(which is declining, and I think for the worse), which is almost non-existent on a political level(outside of lobbying for Israel), and more concerned about corporate influence, which is secular if anything at the moment(look at the corporate boycott in reaction to the Indiana law for example). Corporate power is subverting our republican(small r) institutions of government.
It may be declining, but with over 3/4ths of Americans identifying as Christians and basing their vote on a candidate's religion or based on religious issues it is still scary to me, mind you I have nothing against the faith itself just its presence in government and its influence on our society. All of that being said I am right alongside you in that corporate power is definitely the more scary of the two.
I guess I don't see this religious influence in the government, or where it is adversely affecting the society. I am definitely not for a state church by any means, but it seems to me corporate influence has grown as our society has become more materialistic and secular. That is my read at least. I don't think there is anything wrong per say with a morality informed by Christian values and this influencing government policy.
Forgive me that my memory recall is absolute shit right now and I can only come up with stem cell research for an example of scientifically holding us back and the losing battle of gay rights that is not really much of an issue anymore. There are parts of Christian values that hit the nail right on the head and I completely agree with, there are other things not so much, our government was set up to be free from regulations brought on by faith, the baby boomers seemed to have forgotten that as there are a decent amount that would try to claim we are a Christian nation. The big difference though is that the Christian's are well intentioned while the corporations are just driven by greed, there is a quote, I forget who its by and will probably jumble it some but the basic meaning of it is that; I fear those who have nothing but good intentions, for those that mean harm will tire or bore or become distracted while those who have nothing but good will in their hearts will be relentless in their efforts to bring it forth.
From what I understand, embryonic stem cell research is not illegal, but not publicly funded(or funded at the levels proponents would like). But if you have further information on the matter I would be happy to read it. I think there are ethical questions beyond religious lobbying that are holding back more funding, and they are legitimate in my view. What I would say to you, who come from a more secular background, is to not only have skepticism on religion, but be skeptical of science, and perhaps not all scientific advancement is ideal for humanity, and in some instances can be very dehumanizing(like negative eugenics for example). I was confirmed Catholic, but was agnostic for many years before coming back, but I understand your world view because I was there at one point.
To be clear, the 1st Amendment says the government is not to respect an establishment of religion, meaning a state church, not that legislators or voters cannot be informed by their morality which has basis in their faith(Christian or otherwise). We have freedom of religion, not freedom from, a very key difference in my opinion. I think there is confusion on this christian nation thing. We were a nation of Christians at our founding, most of our population if not all of it outside of a few jews were Christian, as were most of our founders(outside of Jefferson). So they don't mean, I think, that we have a state religion, but that our culture is fundamentally rooted in the Christian world view because the founding stock was 99% Christian.
I agree with that quote. I wish it was as simple that our government was run by an evil conspiracy. Than you could just remove the conspirators. But it is a mindset that pervades government, corporations, academia, etc. I think many of these people genuinely think they are doing the right thing or are so out of touch, this is the problem. Are there bad actors? Yes of course, but not most of the ruling elite in my opinion.
