STATE RELIGION vs. FREEDOM OF RELIGION

State religion and government are in collusion to assure the continuity of the government and to assure the accrual of wealth by the state’s power elites. If the representatives of the state’s religion, the high priests, mullahs, bishops and other high functionaries, behave appropriately, they and their religions and co-functionaries will also be assured of the continuity of their wealth stream. (They will not be assured of entry to heaven, though.) The Catholic Church in Italy and the Sunni hierarchy of Islam in Saudi Arabia and the Shia hierarchy in Iran, are perfect examples of that collusion and set examples for like cooperative arrangements across the world

The same is true of states with “freedom of religion” where people of all faiths have access to power. Freedom of religion enables competing members of power elites of all faiths to accrue wealth by aligning themselves and colluding with governments that contain members of many faiths. However, the sign on the door states, "ATHEISTS NOT WELCOME"

Collusion in all cases simply means sharing wealth through a quid pro quo arrangement with government factotums who occupy decision-making positions in the enormous variety of offices that control contract-letting, purchasing, industry-wide rules committees, pork barrel aficionados, and other gate-keepers of government controlled money. You kiss my ring and I’ll kiss yours.

Several distinctions between the power elites and their government puppets work to the benefit and detriment of the puppets. The major distinction is that government functionaries must have the positions of influence to produce the benefits. They must be elected and they must be re-elected. They must have relationships with others in their fields who also seek benefits. But they benefit from their relationships by acquiring the funds necessary to get re-elected and funds to satisfy the needs and demands of electorates that will vote them into office.

In the United States, no atheist stands a reasonable chance of being elected to any office, high or low. A Google website claims five elected atheist officials in the entire United States at this time. (Pete Stark, congressman from California, among them.) So, where is the separation of church and state? Obviously, religion is a key to the door of election to government office. Sarah Palin can attest to that religious “truth.”