Long, long ago everyone in the United States outside of big cities assumed you were Christian. You had your occasional Jew, of course, and some closet atheists, but that was it. There were Catholics, but they were papists, not real Christians. Besides, they mostly stuck to themselves in places like Maryland. Later the Italians and Irish swarmed in. They were Catholic and alien, so they were kept in special sections of big cities, right next to the Jews.
In those times, being American meant being Christian and vice versa. It meant thinking right thoughts and doing right things. It meant going to church and enduring hours of uncomfortable clothes and hard seats while someone shouted at you about hell and how bad you were. Afterward, you went home and did nothing, since everything fun was forbidden on the Sabbath.
The good news for men was that you could do anything you wanted the rest of the week – beat your wife, beat your kids, drink whiskey, and chase Indians. Eventually, the Indians got in the way of decent people trying to steal their land, so they were herded off into faraway places that no one else wanted.
As the country grew up, white people in the north started getting annoyed that white people in the south could own slaves and beat them whenever they wanted. That brought on the Civil War, which freed the slaves and let them be sharecroppers without any rights or money. With no more slaves or slave owners, anyone could be mean to black people any time they wanted.
Women were a different matter. Once they got married, only their husbands were allowed to beat them. Same way for kids until they were old enough to work in factories, make money, and get beaten there. This was the first instance of outsourcing, and it worked fine until nosy do-gooders (also childless) raised a big stink. This put the kid-beating was back into the home, which meant less income for the family. On the other hand, it meant the men could take care of both their women and their kids at the same time and in the same place.
Some men look back on this time with misty eyes and think it was the golden age of America. Oddly enough, women and Indians and African Americans disagree.
The golden age of Christianity took place in Europe during the 12th century when it became fashionable to go to the Holy Land and kill infidels. It’s not that the infidels did anything wrong, it’s just that people were afraid Moorism was contagious and would spread to Europe. So the rich people jumped on their horses, and their servants jumped on their feet, and they all rode off under the unofficial slogan of “Killing for Christ”.
In another case of “oddly enough”, the moors and infidels didn’t like this game. In fact, it made them so surly that they remember it to this day and even call Christians infidels if you can believe that!
So the world turns.
These sad histories raise the question of what might have happened had the Christians, especially the Christian men, treated others with love — as their faith requires — instead of violence?
This in turn raises the question of what would happen today if people of all races and faiths acted in accordance with the basic tenets of their faiths or just with simple human compassion and decency – a golden age for the whole world?
Very good!
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