America is burning: The Christian Jihad is devouring democracy

It is over. The United States of America, this great experiment of the Enlightenment, is sinking into a vortex of religious delusion so dark that even the gloomiest prophecies of the Founding Fathers seem like naïve understatements. What is happening over there, while we watch passively, is nothing less than the metamorphosis of a democracy into a theocratic nightmare, led by a man who brushes aside the separation of church and state with a shrugging "Let’s forget about that for a moment" - as if it were a bothersome formality and not the foundation of civilized society. No matter where we investigate, no matter which source we tap, no matter which stone we turn over - everywhere we encounter the same world of religious mania that is not only dangerous but ready to go all the way. These fanatics do not merely dream of the return of witch burnings - they are already building the pyres.

The new directive from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management dated July 28 reads like a handbook for religious harassment, disguised as a document of "religious freedom." Federal employees are now officially allowed to pressure their colleagues into converting to the "correct" faith. They may hold prayer groups during working hours, wave crucifixes and Bibles like weapons, and - it is hard to believe - doctors in veterans' hospitals may pray over their patients whether they want it or not. A superior may invite their subordinates to Easter services, and we all know what an "invitation" from the boss really means. The state has flung open the office door to the church, and the inquisitors are streaming in. Trump has launched a "Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias" - in a country where Christians make up 70 percent of the population and every single president in history. It is like founding a task force to protect Islam in Saudi Arabia. This perverse performance of victimhood is the blueprint of all fascist movements: the majority screams that it is being oppressed while lacing up its boots to trample on minorities.

The IRS, once the guardian of political neutrality for religious institutions, has capitulated. The Johnson Amendment, since 1954 a bulwark against the merging of pulpit and politics, lies in ruins. Preachers may now campaign from the pulpit, drive their flocks to the polls like cattle to the slaughter - all of it tax-financed by a state that is dismantling itself. Every church service becomes a party rally, every sermon a session of political indoctrination. Paula White-Cain, that high priestess of prosperity gospel, who empties her followers’ pockets with promises of divine dividends, now reigns in the White House. "Faith has been brought back to where it always belongs - at the center," she proclaims, and you can hear the bones of the Founding Fathers grinding in their graves. A woman who preaches material wealth as a sign of divine favor now advises the most powerful man in the world. It is like appointing a pyromaniac as chief of the fire department.

The erasure of transgender existence by presidential decree - only two genders, as ordained by God - is an act of ontological violence that denies millions of people their identity. The University of Pennsylvania retroactively deletes the achievements of swimmer Lia Thomas from the records as if she had never existed. It is the damnatio memoriae of the 21st century, the condemnation of memory, just as Roman emperors once imposed on their enemies. Medical treatment for trans youth is being banned, clinics are shutting down their programs - and desperate children are left to their fate while their parents are forced to watch the state drive their children to suicide. Mike Huckabee, Baptist preacher and hardliner, becomes ambassador to Israel. A man who sees the annexation of the West Bank as divine will now represents American interests in the Middle East. Palestinians, to him, are merely obstacles on the path to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, their suffering a footnote in God's grand plan. For these people, the apocalypse is not a horror scenario - it is the goal.

The Supreme Court, stacked with Trump’s henchmen - Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett - is systematically dismantling every protection for minorities. Parents are allowed to pull their children from classes on LGBTQ+ topics, as if knowledge were a disease from which one must protect one's offspring. Planned Parenthood is being financially strangled - not just abortions, but cancer screenings, contraception, basic health care for millions of women - all sacrificed on the altar of religious purity. Trump pardons militant anti-abortion activists who blocked clinics, terrorized women, threatened doctors. The message is crystal clear: religious violence is not only tolerated, it is rewarded. It is the state-sanctioned endorsement of terror - as long as it is committed in the name of God. The assault on universities, museums, cultural institutions - he calls them "liberal bastions" - is an attempt to eradicate critical thinking itself. Research funding is slashed if universities do not submit politically. It is the book burning of the digital age, only now flames are no longer needed - one simply shuts off the money and lets the institutions of knowledge wither away. The new "Religious Liberty Commission," staffed exclusively with Trump loyalists and led by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who wants to force prayers and the Ten Commandments into schools, is the politburo of the American God-state. When Trump says at its announcement, "Let’s forget about the separation of church and state for one moment," that is no slip of the tongue - it is a declaration of war against the Constitution itself.

These people are not merely dreaming metaphorically of witch burnings. They are creating the legal, political, and cultural conditions for a new era of persecution. When you deny people their identity, when you demonize minorities, when you brand science as heresy, when you place religious dogma above human rights - it is only a small step to physical violence. Reverend Shannon Fleck of Faithful America put it succinctly: "Those celebrating this are aligned with a Christian nationalist ideology that believes Christians should have dominion over the U.S. government." It is the Christian jihad, the American Taliban state, the resurrection of the Inquisition by modern means. What we are witnessing is the zombification of a nation. The USA, once the shining example of secular democracy, is turning into an undead theocracy that stumbles across the world infecting everything it touches. The separation of powers is collapsing, the courts become enforcers of religious decrees, the legislature bows before the preachers, and the executive behaves like a theocratic autocrat. This religious delusion that we encounter wherever we investigate is not just an American problem. It metastasizes across the globe, inspires fanatics everywhere, emboldens extremists of every stripe. The Christian nationalists in Europe watch the Atlantic with fascination and take notes. The Islamists see their own methods mirrored and feel validated. It is a global race into darkness.

The terrifying truth is this: this movement is willing to go all the way. They see themselves in a cosmic war between good and evil, and in such wars, anything goes. The destruction of secular order is not collateral damage - it is the goal. The suffering of the marginalized is not an accident - it is intentional. The erosion of human rights is not a bug in the system - it is the system. And while we are still debating whether it really needs to be seen so dramatically, they are already building their theocracy. Brick by brick, law by law, ruling by ruling. The pyres may still be metaphorical, but the sparks are already flying. And if we do not wake up, if we do not realize that the foundations of civilized society are under attack here, then we will one day wake up in a world where the Enlightenment is only a distant memory and the darkness of religious delusion has devoured everything. America is already burning. The only question is whether we extinguish the fire or watch it spread to us.

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