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 According to dictionaries, ideology is the way a person looks at things--their world view, per se. It influences every aspect of their life and behavior. Ideology is the core underlying belief of politics, society, philosophy and/or economics. Wikipedia has quite an extensive review of ideology, but it isn't my intention to delve that deeply here. Instead, I would like to look at how ideology becomes more important than life itself.
Ideology is about ideals, not nitty-gritty reality. It's about achieving a perfect government, economy, or society. Many times, ideals are couched in religion. Puritans came to this country to escape persecution and establish their ideal society. Quakers did the same. On the other side, Karl Marx's ideal government was atheistic and communistic. Whether founded on religious or atheistic principles, these governments were fatally flawed because no one ideology fits all. People differ. Beliefs differ. No one set of freedoms and crime will be universally accepted.
Our country's forefathers understood this as well as we should. They saw the horrors of sects and religions fighting and killing with one another over words and doctrines. It was so appalling to them that they deliberately separated the ideologies of religion from the ideologies of a democratic nation. We don't have to look into history to see the same scenario playing out in Arab countries--countries war-torn with intolerance for not just outsiders or other religions, but for different sects of their own religion.
Unfortunately, American's perfect government was only perfect for a select few. After all, both the religious and political ideologies excluded freedom of women, native Americans, and blacks. Then, to top it off, local communities enacted their own ideologies. Ideologies that were often religious but couched in democratic terms. The infamous Blue Laws made work and sales on Sunday illegal. They might not have mentioned religion (I don't know for sure), but why else would a community distinguish one day from another? Not only did it make that day "special" it made dissenters easier to spot and harrass. Blue laws established a moral high-ground for Sunday-keepers and turned Sabbath-keepers (Jews, 7th day adventists, 7th day Baptists, etc.) and Friday-keepers (Moslems) into the unlawful and morally bankrupt. It also created economic hardship for them. Sabbath and Friday-keepers were forced to close their businesses for two days instead of one (one day in observance of their own sacred day and another for Sunday).
Religious ideology infiltrated the government in other ways. Placing religious slogans on coinage in the mid-late 1800s, creating religious state mottos, prayer in public schools, prayer before Senate meetings or state/federal meetings, etc. Religious holidays were given governmental sanctions: Christmas and Easter. Since the predominate religious ideology has been anglo-saxon prostestantism, those were the ideals pressed upon the local communities, state and federal governments. Each edict, each law, each tradition, announced that there is only one religion that is valid, true or worthy of recognition. All others are unimportant.
And yet...the very same people who loudly proclaim their right to school prayer, would boycott and withdraw their children from school if that prayer was said by a Moslem, Hindu, Wiccan, Rabbi, or otherwise. The very same people who consider it their "god-given right" to read bibles to school children or observe christmas or easter holidays at school, would become violent if another religion enforced their "god-given right" in Islam, Hinduism, Wiccan, Judaism, etc. It's at times like these, when the predominate religion would object to a similiar edict by another religion, that we realize how indoctrinated into Christian ideology that our nation truly is.
A couple Christmas's ago, stores in our local area tried to be inclusive by putting up "Happy Holidays" signs since three religions were celebrating various holidays around the same timeframe. Christians boycotted the stores. Insisted that the signs say, "Merry Christmas," thus acknowledging only the validity of one religious holiday. The stores relented. Christian ideology won. I thought it quite sad. |
