Editor, Times-Union: As the world watches (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) became the latest incarnation of anti-separation of church and state/pro-coerced union of church and state extremist to take hold in the Muslim world, thereby joining such more mildly repressive regimes and organizations as the Shia Muslim theocracy of Iran, the Sunni Muslim monarchy of Saudia Arabia, the recently deposed Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Somalia’s al-Shabaab faction, the Islamist faction in Libya and Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. One should not come to the conclusion that such pro-coerced union of church and state extremist is exclusive to Islam. An introductory reading of historical literature on the Crusades, European wars of religion, the Soviet Union, Red China, North Korea, or really most countries throughout history will dispel such a notion. In this particular regard America has been one of the few genuine exceptions despite our still daily struggles to be such an exception. Most importantly readers of the Times-Union should take the opportunity to read or even skim through “A World Survey of Religion and the State” by Jonathan Fox. This book analyzes church and state interactions in 175 countries from 1990 to 2002. There readers will find that quite a few countries practice some sort of socialist style intervention into regulation of and even partial or whole assimilation of the free market of religious activity and choice. Such actions are motivated by the belief that there must be some form of artificial religious unity imposed upon all in a particular area by government action by bringing their particular form of order into the “anarchy” of the natural free market of religious liberty, diversity and activity. The extreme version of this mindset can be best summarized in the following principle listed below whether it is practiced by fanatics such as ISIS, militant atheists, or even advocates of watered down theocracies. The Authoritarian or Totalitarian Principle of Coerced Union of Church and State It is the moral duty of the enlightened few, the will of the majority, or the spirit of divine providence to use the institutions of church and state as one for the common good of one’s community, state, country, or world in order to establish one God/one faith for all within our borders and compel unwavering allegiance from all to the one true faith, to cleanse our land of the spiritual doctrines of falsehood and darkness by any and all means including purification by holy war to punish the infidels and heretics who refuse to convert to the one true faith, and to mold the collective temporal and spiritual lives of the unenlightened and fallen masses toward a greater purpose, casting aside into oblivion those who would willing stray from the path of righteousness or threaten the divinely inspired collective and mission of such an undertaking. Sincerely, Alexander Houze Leesburg
