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Loony religions in the US and consequences. (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world to c/AskUSA

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was just watching "American Primeval", when it occurred to me (again) that the US was a place where oddball religions could prosper. Two recent successful examples of very weird ones being Mormons and Scientology (although the latter is a bit less successful lately).

Why is it that weird things catch on so readily in the US?

Of course, the "founders" were people that were kicked out of everywhere else because they were trying to convert them to their extremist religious views (and yet US people are fond of trying to find family ties to them... "hey, my great, great, great grand father was a religious lunatic! But yours wasn't")

So now, Mormons (Jews totally rowed to the US, for some reason, and then Jesus came there, and there were horses, and cities, and there's absolutely no archaeological trace, probably because god) have an astounding foothold despite their creed (I'm saying this because I have read the book of Mormon).

Then there's Scientology, and I don't even know where to begin with that one, given how fucked up it is... If you don't know about it, start with Wikipedia.

Also (probably not finally, there's certainly more) there's the innumerable bizarre Christianity stuff in the US. It's such a mess. I don't even think that most of the evangelical groups are technically Christians.

So apparently,, in the US, anything goes. The holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, blessed be it's meat balls, showed us that. But then what?

The problem with the typical US "let anyone do whatever" is that vulnerable get fleeced at best.

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Of course, the "founders" were people that were kicked out of everywhere else because they were trying to convert them to their extremist religious views

Small Correction: Those were the Puritans / Pilgrims, and they predate the Founding Fathers by over 150 years. They showed up in 1620, pretty much as-described in the post, but the people who we consider the Founding Fathers didn't actually found the country until 157 years later. The latter did not want a religious theocracy here unlike the earlier settlers who were so insufferable England basically put them on a boat and set them adrift in the Atlantic (not literally, but not exactly not that, either).

Many Americans also fail to realize there's a 157 year gap between "fled England to escape religious persecution" and declaring independence from England. They also fail to realize the puritans were the persecutors and not the ones being persecuted (Edit: I originally phrased that backwards).

So apparently,, in the US, anything goes. The holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, blessed be it's meat balls, showed us that. But then what?

Technically / legally? Yes. However, there's increasing Christo-publican insistence on treating anything but Christianity as a second-class religion, at best, while implementing clearly unconstitutional laws based on their flavor of Xtianity.

Also, is this a question for the US demographic, or are you just blowing off steam? Not that I disagree with you, just trying to keep the community on-topic.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I meant the founders, not the "founding fathers". I guess i should have used another term. They kind of started the colony. Although they weren't very good at it.

Thankfully better people wrote down the foundation of the country later on (and were mostly ignored).

You're right that anything that isn't vaguely Christian is second class. It certainly played a huge part when scientology decided that it was a religion and picked a symbol.

And tgen there's the myriad of pseudo Christian religions.

Christianism has some basic tenets. How many of those do those numerous religions adhere to?

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

That's all just how "religious freedom" works 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Otherwise, the government would have to legitimize or refuse to legitimize every religion (which means we would not have religious freedom at all). It also protects citizens from the government forcing a religion (or religious laws) on them. In theory, anyway...

The only place the government has any oversight of religion is if they apply for tax-exempt status. I'm not clear on what they look at there, but there's obviously some minimum requirements otherwise everyone would be a pastor/prophet/messiah/voice of their own religion and thus tax exempt. Some people go the full mile to avoid taxes (Scientology, for example), but for the most part, "I'm going to become a church to get out of paying taxes" is just a tired TV trope. Plus, among other requirements, religions are not allowed to get involved with politics (e.g. can't endorse or donate to candidates, etc). Unfortunately, those have to be reported to the IRS on a case-by-case basis, and I'm sure enforcement is lax.

Christianism has some basic tenets. How many of those do those numerous religions adhere to?

Hell, how many of the Christian tenets do Christians actually adhere to?