Thread by @Nofearnofavors4

Extreme polarization in politics & life in general, a sense of community is what's needed.
The seemingly never ending scandals of the Catholic church, the fleecing by Megachurches, & attacks on Temples + Mosques contribute to our current climate of hate & institutional mistrust.

https://twitter.com/VTSilver/status/1214900093813493761

If ANY religion behaves like a business perhaps they should be taxed like a business.
I was born & raised Catholic, am an atty, & I love, no, I revere our Constitution.
Our 1st Amendment was written in part, as a remedy to the (perceived or true) digressions of est. religions.

The behavior, in this case, of the Catholic church would've horrified our founders.
Scientology, which is an alleged de facto cult, forbidding ppl to leave, using ppl as slaves, & ignoring reports of it's own sexual assault problems, IMO, shouldn't be allowed to so act TAX FREE!

Putting aside our Country's laws for a minute, the Bible itself would be horrified by the Catholic Church's actions: Jesus threw out the money lenders, overturning their tables in front of the Temple.
There are many damnations of avarice scattered throughout Old & New Testament.

I don't have the answer. I am no one but a simple country lawyer, but it seems to me that laws passed to allow places of worship more easily engage in charity, need a 2nd look when it turns out they're "gaming" the system & hoarding their tax free monies.
😏

*to*

Our society desperately needs to be able to trust our institutions.
Indeed, our mistrust in religion, government, & press, make us vulnerable to the "fog of uncertainty " Putin in particular, likes to employ in Russian satellite countries & to exploit in the U.S.

Putin & now sadly, the GOP, both employing Trump as their "useful idiot" don't need to sow division.
Sadly, it's been part of the U.S. since it's inception:
they just need exploit our divisions.
The institutions that used to be guardrails for our democracy are failing us.

As @selectedwisdom has repeatedly warned us, our pre-existing divisions are easily manipulated by bad actors.
Unfortunately our laws per usual, haven't caught up with the technology upon which we now all rely.
Places of worship used to be sanctuaries which brought us together.

@selectedwisdom Show me a town who has lost it's places of worship (whether due to economic problems of their own making or not), & I'll show you a town where suicides & drug overdoses are disproportionate to population.
Even Hollywood's demise of it's golden age hurts us. Community is lost.

@selectedwisdom The deliberate dismantling of our labor unions has also cut into the heart of our communities.
Without our communal experiences: seeing the same blockbuster movies, of sitting & kneeling together in prayer, of reading the same articles (Churches hiding assets, for ex.)...

*- so*

@selectedwisdom (*- of, - of*)

@selectedwisdom I have a love/hate relationship w/technology, mainly bc it's the wild, wild west due to the dearth of adequate laws protecting our precious democracy.
The Bloomberg article re: Catholic church hiding 2 bn $$$ simply illustrates yet another institution which has failed us.

@selectedwisdom Without our communal experiences in our institutions: our places of worship, our government, our elected officials, our court systems, & esp. the fourth estate (a Free Press), we're at risk of losing all we hold dear.
Our founders enshrined these institutions in the 1st amendment

@selectedwisdom These communal institutions were enshrined by our founders in the 1st amendment bc they understood that without all the freedoms articulated, we cease being a country, let alone a democratic republic.
The 2008 recession struck a devastating blow & hollowed out entire towns...

@selectedwisdom It opened the door further to automation/globalization; it supplanted traditional careers/creating new opportunities but at a cost.
We can now order anything w/a touch of a button.
However, we no longer go to malls, another communal experience.
We must find our way back

@selectedwisdom We must find a way back to being able to trust in our institutions.
When even our news is siloed, we have 2 perceived "realities".
We must become readers again & understand how journalism works.
We must knoe how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We must bc civic minded...

@selectedwisdom *know* 😬😮

@selectedwisdom We, as citizens of this precious nation, have a duty to those who came b4 us to put aside our differences & come together. We can disagree w/respect.
We need to be able to rely on our churches, elected officials, courts, police, military, news media, voting booths-
COMMUNITY

@selectedwisdom We need to be able to trust polls and the impeachment process @senatemajldr
We have "A Republic, if we can keep it." (Ben Franklin, 1787)
We, as citizens & stewards of our tiny patch of this earth, have a duty to keep it.
Call your MOCs & demand a #FairTrial,
vet your news, VOTE

@selectedwisdom @senatemajldr *Please excuse any & all grammatical errors + my exuberant use of commas.
I am a proponent of the Oxford comma and then some.* 😉

@selectedwisdom @senatemajldr @threadreaderapp Please unroll ✌🗽 💕 Julie