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From: wdc1@spaceworks.com (William D Carroll)
Subject: Re: Is Religion Necessarily Political?  (whas:The function of religion is not to help you understand reality..)
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Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 20:51:45 GMT
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The difficulty with discussing 'Religion' is that there are so many of them.  Generalizations tend to be unfair to all of the religions lumped together.  For instance, pre-Massada Judaism clearly had a political aspect to it.  In its essential structure it was a theocracy.  There have been many other theocracies as well.  Shintoism today worships the Emperor of Japan as the deified descendant of a Goddess, with obvious political overtones.

On the other hand Chritianity before Constantine was decidedly apolitical.  Jesus made the distinction when he said 'Render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's and render unto God the thing's that are God's'.  Political factions will occasionally adopt religious overtones, and religious factions will occasionally adopt political overtones.  Both are highly varied but both are human behavior so it is natural that they will sometimes mix.  They are not necessarily co-joined or necessarily separate.  Each case needs to be individually considered.

Willy
