Ron this is becoming frustrating. All the churches in Chicago that have power have that power because of the corrupt local politicians that give them that power. The church gives them votes, the politicians return in kind. I grew up in a small town of 10k Ron. The churches had zero power there. ZERO! You are living in the 1800's. If the church had any kind of power we would all be Scientologists.
You might have grown up there, but clearly you left before you knew how small towns run their politics. And about your frustration, again, you seem tightly wound. We are having a conversation and expressing points of view. What are you getting frustrated about?
This is tinfoil talk. Which church? Which religion? Which state? You act like there is one church in this country. Catholics hate protestants. Protestants hate Catholics. Episcopalians hate Methodists. Lutherans hate baptists. Come on man, there is no one church. In fact, that is the one thing you have going for you in this country. We have so many churches and so many religions with so many different agendas that none of them have any power. Perhaps if they unionized? LOL.
Because you keep ignoring my main point. That in every single example you gave, the power was given to the church by the government. The church has no power in this country on it's own.
By making it smaller. By moving it from the federal level to the state level. From the state to the local. You support liberty over subsidies. You give people back their money and let them spend it how they want to. You allow businesses to grow without over reaching regulations.
These are oft made generalities. But just how precisely would we move it from the federal to the state level?
Christianity is the dominant religion in the US. Proponents of "faith" now wish to lord over science education, reproductive rights, and medical scientific research. If the government were to step out of the way, do you actually think it would limit religion's influence over unwilling members of the population? I see that you, yourself, are in no short supply of tinfoil.
Absolutely. If the church is left to their own devices they can talk all they want, but they have no power over us. All they can do is talk. And "Christianity" maybe the dominant faith but none of the christian sects agree on anything and most of them really dislike each other. So making some broad statement that "Christians" want something is worthless.