Something has gone wrong alright Peter, and that problem has its roots well and truly in the unsubstantiated beliefs of the religious fanatics alias the highly conservative tea party?

And wherever one looks, democracy is essentially destroyed by the inclusion of this or that unsubstantiated religious belief!

Thus we see this or that theocracy, replace democracy and tinpot tyrants erode the former rights and freedoms of the citizen, with the very first attack on freedom of expression and a free press!

Poverty on a hitherto unknown scale is what happened to America, and hard on the heels of an unacceptable period of unprecedented (keysenism socialistic) prosperity. As multi-millionaires became cash registers with eyes and handed the reins of corporate America to socialism hating corporate psychopaths?

Who only allowed themselves to see their world through the prism of the profit graph upward curve! And made diabolically dumb decisions that included offshoring their entire operation; thereby effectively destroying essential discretionary spending, then tried to force the profit curve to remain on track!

And if you want to see how well that works, just take a butchers at the ultra religious "Americanized" Philippines, the third poorest nation on the planet and one of the most populous!

More people doesn't make the economy perform better, nor does extreme exploitive capitalism, and no finer example to be found! With the privileged shoring up privilege by requiring mundane jobs, to have a college degree, thereby entrenching privilege!?

Moreover the basic wage in America remained unchanged for 30 some years until Obama, and medicine is the most expensive taking somewhere north of 13% GDP, yet still leaving around 40% of the population uninsured and reliant on charity for health and basic dental care!

The farm bill costs more than the forgone health care of the uninsured and essentially allows quite grossly inefficient operators and production paradigms to not just survive but prosper, all while concerned religious leaders took what amounts to a permenant vacation from their core pastoral responsibilities!

Yes and to coin a phrase, something stinks in the state of Denmark!
Alan B.

The choice boils down to either a Cathedral or a Shopping Centre, voting LNP or Labor ?

The Masses either choose one to be led by , a 'God' that appears to be owned by religious Organizations or Modernism that is owned by 'Elites'.

How about , that I just live a good , moral and fair life , all without the need in Something 'spiritual' being 'greater' that mankind ?

I can choose to live without Cathedrals or Shopping Centres as a must have.I live in a small , prosperous rural district for a start, and get to choose neither the LNP or Labor.

That way I consign all 'Gods' to the History Books where they belong.

Hopefully ,they will be joined shortly by all major political parties !

It is kind of weird how liberal democracies have become more restrictive than the theocracies of the middle ages with all the political correctness and so on. Maybe Christians need to push for greater self governance and as the 21st century meanders along. Perhaps even another neo-gothic architectural movement could make things more exciting and sustainable.

"I am a little sick of hearing about how precious and wonderful and essential democracy is in the face of its complete failure to election of a President of the United States that shows so little aptitude for the job."

This bloke would have to be the most arrogant contributor to OLO, bar none. Assuming that he meant 'failure to elect a president who shows apptitude', or 'electing a president who shows little apptitude' – Mr. Angry tends to shoot of his mouth without thinking – who the hell does he think he is, posing as someone who knows better than the majority of Americans who voted who they wanted as president: a tired old Lefty battle-axe, or a non-political man with talent who knows what people want?

"men and women who lived in Christendom understood themselves as being children of God who were made in the image of God"

As usual, your whole argument is based on a false premise. Man has made God in his own image. The incontrovertible fact is that there is no God. If there were, would he have stood by while his son was brutally killed on the cross. Would he have stood by by while his so called representatives did bad things to the children in his care. What happened to the "suffer the little children .... bit". Come on man, wake up to yourself, give us a break and stop insulting our intelligence.
David

Two images on the will to TOTAL power and control at the root of applied christian politics, both old-time and now time. All of which was given "approval" in the name of "god" and for the "glory of 'Jesus'" by the Papal bulls of 1455 and 1493.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel13.html
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel21.html
Trump of course stands entirely within that paradigm as do many/most of his advisers and his Department heads. And of course all of the dreadfully sane "conservative" Christians that endorsed him

But what is the real nature of the self or the Ego-"I"?
http://www.consciousnessitself.org
And did old-time pre-modern Christians with their consoling mommy-daddy creator-"God" really have a "better" sense of "self" or their true nature than we moderns?

http://www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/whiteandorgangeEGO.html

The usual dreadfully sane Christian is just as narcissistic as everyone else.
http://www.beezone.com/narcissus.html

Two references on human life as a depth-level Process inherent in Reality Itself
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/unique.html
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/dualsens.html