Accumulated great wealth. Believers enforced their rights to not be taxed, surrender rights or property to governments, and still do today. I guess we'd call sovereign wealth, although I know the meaning of that term doesn't fit what I'm saying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund
Maybe that's a bad example, but in a way they don't care about public opinion, etc. They've held onto so much over the years, that they have more power than government. They have outlasted most nations if not all, and are using their financial power to shove our secular government principles aside to discriminate against non-believers in health care and other issues. They have bonded with the born-again Protestants and will likely bond with Mormons, maybe even Moonies. In the end it's not about theology, it's about power. Perhaps this is the beginning of the one world religion the Bible speaks of in the End Times.
They've pretty much won the war over not paying taxes on property or income, not following the IRS rules on mixing politics with religion. They are enjoying the approval of judges, legislators and governors to continue their position. Because people have been brought up in the Church, been married in it and it's simply part of their family life and prosperity, too.
While not supporting secular government they have taken the money of non-believers to continue their attacks on public education. Future generations are more likely to follow their edicts whether they believe in them or not, those parameters are being built into the textbooks. Their members support these things, even if not consciously, or it wouldn't be happening. The First Amendment as it is now interpreted allows churches to do anything they please with no sanctions or costs of doing so.
Emboldened by their influence among high placed politicians, despite some parishes going broke, they are comfortable doing these things. I have no solution to their actions and they accept nothing less than total surrender of the commons and the people to their dogma. And just to make myself clear, it's not just the Catholics, I'm not singling them out as most of them that I know are liberal but not all of them.
All these religious groups are doing the same thing. When I visit some areas, they have become bigger than government in the lives of many people and with the laws getting enacted they are becoming more powerful and our nation less free.
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