My fellow American’s, what do you wish for our nation to be? Did we fight for our liberation from Spain only to remain under the rule of the Church that continues to restrict us? And restrict us it does; there is no doubt in my mind of that. I ask you that you take a moment to look beneath their allure of a noble and just church and consider the words I read recently in an article published in the Magazine, El Crepusculo, in Santiago, Chile. The author of “Chilian Sociability” is a fellow liberalist by the name of Francisco Bilbao who has looked to the words of Felicite de Lamennais, a Frnech Catholic socialist who is a leading voice in the current European Revolution taking. Bilbao addresses the corporation like tendencies the church has taken up, even to the point of going against the actual teachings of Jesus Christ.

Today, the Church acts under the doctrine of Paul, a man who “did not follow the moral religion of Jesus,” instead he reacted in a way that paved the way to privileging and favoring some over other’s – he fashioned a church that prospers through an enforced inequality. Yet, didn’t we fight to break free from a system of oppression? If you think back to any monarchical system you will find, very often, the Church existing hand in hand with the monarchy. Now ask yourself why that may be. Is it possible that through the Church the Monarchy gained a tighter grip on the freedoms that rightfully belonged to the people? Freedoms only accessed through the intelligent mind? Freedoms that were, and continue to be, imprisoned through a system of education controlled by the Church?

In the Church there exists a main principle of obeying authority, a principle which, in-and-of itself, oppresses anyone not in a position of power. Hence forth, during monarchical rule the authority figure that was to be obeyed was the King or Queen of the time. Now, in current day Mexico, it is the Church that claims more and more of the characteristics and tendencies of an authority figure. When your eyes rest on the Church’s status you find an existence of privilege, especially in the form of wealth from real estate and annuity. But their grip on our nation exists beyond simply their access to our financial prosperity, but also our level of intelligence as well.

Do not be fooled by their claim of providing education to our children. While this may be true on some levels, it also deceives and beguiles on another. They teach only what they want our children to know and being a system rooted in ancient traditions and texts, it is safe to say that what is being taught is no different from their primordial roots. Yet, further development and progress exists in free and innovative thinking, not in the religiously restricted mind frame – that mind set is one that will leave us only stuck in the past. Look at the European Nations, or even our neighbors, the United States, they exemplify the forward thinking and forward moving people I wish to see in my people one day. But to do this we must first free ourselves from that which shackles us and restricts us from our potential – the Church.

I do not wish to claim that the Church should have no life in our beloved land, merely that the Church exists separate from our government system. If it truly does wish to impart a code of ethics on its people then it must first allow the minds of its people to be free to develop and determine right from wrong through a free minded way of living. The Church does not belong in our government system because it has no place in our laws. If the Church will not first pledge their loyalty to the state before any other, then it certainly has no place in claiming stake in its sovereignty. And even after the people of the Church chose to adhere to their state of Mexico before the Holy See, religious teachings impart a way of life people should be free to chose to live by or not. That choice of how live and think about their life is a choice every human should have the right to adopt or decline as intelligent and free thinkers. For that reason, I find the Catholic Church to be unjust in their position of power in our system of governing.