Karl Marx and his cronies used to say all religion was merely an opiate of the people, a way capital sustained itself; in their day, nothing could have been further from the truth, especially given the then manifest pro-people and democracy reliances and efforts of the once-massive Catholic Church.

But today, really, not even the ever-shrinking Catholic Church (nor other Christian faiths) depends on the public at-large or even corporations for its cash; like the USA, many nations aren’t much funding foreign aid and welfare through agencies like they used to, but certainly have been ceding foreign aid and welfare money and duties to religious clergy, yet on the same old same old grounds while officials don’t look the ones doing it, to avoid budget complaints and such while also looking good to shame anyone not going to Church. As a recent Colorado bill supports, religions will mete out as States direct even if such meting contrary to faith. Whereas Churches then represent non-capital, note high-salary officials can be seen as capital in the lopsided equation.

Before anyone yells “Yeeeaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! Marx was right!!!!”, recall that he was wrong ab initio, and in fact his Soviet and other Communist followers actually invented such “fix things” State involvement with faith as a way for ANY nation wishing to manipulate foreign affairs through guise of God’s Will.

Such thinking could extrapolate to suspicion of the “unchurched” who happen to oppose the Global Poverty Act, which does not lower any officials’ salaries but does not only cede USA sovereignty to forces which would have proponents in Congress et al as the sole unitary USA governing authority and force on say-so powers, it rapidly diminishes assets for everyone else globally. If that were the case, then Dennis Kucinich would have been right in calling HR 1955 a mere quashing of freedom even if his own Democrat party tried to oust him for it.

It’s something to ponder, since e.g. EWTN, the global Catholic media network, has begun dripping into its programs a complete turnaround on the maxim: “idle hands are the devil’s playground”: it appears that as a Papal visit nears, yet without his command to do so, the Catholic media now espouse that everyone on earth should view Christ as a man who lived on dust and on air, so to emulate Him, come to re-think it, don’t seek to make the best of all in life within His strictures and with compassion and charity…let go of the material world, and sit naked on dirt staring at the sun all your days; scene missing why EWTN, clergy, officials, and anybody else they deem worthy still will need all the cash they can grab…assuming any others will be deemed fit over time.

I myself as a Roman Catholic, and despite this Lenten season of my faith fishing for voices to express to officials comments re faithful citizenship with concern for ALL people, my chatting about the within foregoing has placed me in status of tolerated persona non grata with my clergy yet sans allegation I’m bearing false witness. I’m now allowed only regular Reconciliation and Saturday Vigil/Sunday/Holy Day Mass attendance, no more fellowship or otherwise. And I faithfully believe in God and His Commandments, together with Christ and the Holy Spirit, whether the reader does or not as is their freedom. I believe God sees everything I do and will one day judge me by it with strict view of the Commandments, and I’m not going to hell for anybody. For same grounds, sans Reconciliation obviously, my wife civilly married to me 20 years has gotten the same persona non grata from her Lutheran Church, so it’s not just Catholics.

Although some in my faith support the Global Poverty Act, Pope Benedict still has proclaimed all persons must obey the laws of the nation they are in; my said faith leader has not found the United States Constitution nihil obstat, nor has he shown any interest in being any nation’s (beyond the Vatican) government.

For all these reasons, I submit my inability to understand how the terms of the Global Poverty Act, LOST, and similar bills protect, preserve, and protect the Constitution, its purposes, and intents regardless of who supports or opposes such bills; and I reiterate my endorsement of the American Conservative Union’s oppositions to any such bills.