The concept of blasphemy is founded upon the belief that it’s an unacceptable moral outrage for people to disagree with each other.
The political philosophy of democracy is based upon the acceptance that people are going to disagree with each other and ought to be able to express their ideas without being punished for it.
The concept of blasphemy and the political philosophy of democracy are mutually incompatible. It’s impossible to have a democracy alongside the belief that differences of opinion must be suppressed.
Margaret Grun Kibben, the government-appointed Christian Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, has come down firmly against democracy. Kibben rose up on the floor of the US House this week to perform a prayer ritual that urged the Christian god to interfere with American culture, using his magic powers to suppress differences of opinion amongst Americans, and force everyone to unite under the religious authority of Christianity.
Kibben called down upon her god as every U.S. Representative listened on, saying: “Prepare our hearts, o lord, to accept the path you have set before us. In the desert of uncertainty and anticipation, make the way straight. Then may the valleys of discordant voices and opposing opinions be filled in, every mountain of pride and every hill of self-promotion be leveled. May every precipitous issue become a plateau of collegial discourse, and the rough places of doubt become a plain smoothed by faith.”
Margaret Grun Kibben’s prayer was a Christian screed against the blasphemy of disagreement, and a demand that all Americans comply with the will of the Christian god.
How boring life would be if Chaplain Kibben’s prayer were to come true!
Kibben demands that all uncertainty be erased, that all disagreements be buried, and that all doubt be smashed flat. The end result that Kibben yearns for is an America in which everybody has the same opinion, and everybody feels that they have certain knowledge of the truth, without room for doubt, or questioning, or discussion, because all democratic debate is eliminated by the power of her Christian religion, “smoothed by faith”.
This is a Christian Nationalist philosophy in which the blasphemy of disagreement is eliminated under the power of religious conformity, and Americans become all the same. It is a stance that is thoroughly opposed to democracy, seeking to create a theocratic dictatorship in which Christian preachers and priests act as thought police.
As an individual, Margaret Grun Kibben has the right to hold her belief that the United States of America ought to be compelled by her god to become a flat, dreary, uniform place with no cultural differences allowed. That’s her personal business.
As an employee of the US federal government, however, Kibben has no right to perform rituals and sermons on the floor of the House of Representatives as if her drab religion is an officially established church of the USA. It isn’t. The Constitution explicitly forbids the creation of government offices of religion and forbids the government establishment of religion.
This congressional prayer ritual by Margaret Grun Kibben is yet another reminder that there is no such thing as a meek and mild Ceremonial Deism. The very existence of congressional chaplains is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution and a manifestation of Christian Nationalism. The use of chaplaincies to promote Christian Nationalism with prayers that ask a god to erase freedom of speech merely confirms the odious, antidemocratic nature of these offices.
