A Future History of the United States
Enlightenment

Tim had lost all sense of time. With no natural light ever penetrating to their underground hideaway, he didn’t know if the days were actually twenty-four hour days or some other artificial length. He had no timepiece and had seen no sign of one anywhere he had explored in the bunker system. The lights dimmed and brightened in a regular pattern, so he thought of each bright episode as “day” while the dimmed light became his “night.”

Claude met with him for extended lessons each “day,” giving more and more history of the Church. He had produced an actual physical Bible for use in these lessons and Tim began to understand that the religion being practiced now was a far cry from what the Bible actually taught. There was no place in the Bible that could be cited to support torture or imprisonment for what the Church now called heresy.

Tim soon learned that the evening mealtime was an opportunity for everyone to express their opinions and argue the finer points of some belief or practice. During these meals everyone was given the chance to challenge another’s argument and present their own interpretation for consideration.

He noticed there seemed to be a constant changing of attendees at these meals. A given individual would attend a few meals then be gone for a while before returning. There were a few who were present at almost every dinner. These he discovered were his primary instructors.

At the conclusion of one of his lessons, Claude walked with him to dinner, “Tomorrow, Dennis will take over as your teacher. I will be gone for several days. I hope to have some good news for you when I return. I will leave you in his capable hands.”He then turned to one of the familiar faces at the table and said, “Dennis, you have met Tim during the meal times. Now it’s your turn to teach him all you know!”

Dennis stood and held out his hand to Tim. “I’ll try to avoid confusing you like I’m sure Claude has. He gets so wrapped up in his favorite topics he doesn’t know when to shut up!”

“Just because you’re so weak on the real history of the Church, you try to bring us all down to your level of ignorance.” Claude replied with a big grin on his face. Turning to Tim he said, “Seriously, what Dennis is going to be teaching you is critical for you to understand what we are trying to do. Pay careful attention. You are going to play a much bigger role in this than you can imagine.”

The next morning Dennis came to Tim’s room right after breakfast. “You probably have some questions. I know we have kept you pretty much in the dark about just what is going on here. We wanted to be sure of you before we told you much about our operations.”

“Yes,” Tim admitted, “I am very curious about this whole setup. I gather that you are planning some type of revolt against the current government, but I don’t see how that can be possible.”

“Well, as I am sure you realize, the Church is the Government. Oh, I know, there are ‘elected’ officials like the President, Senators, Representatives, etc., but they just do whatever the Church leaders tell them to do. If they don’t follow the orders of the Prelate of the Church, he’s the ultimate ruler of the Church, they won’t be re-elected and may not even get to finish out their current term in office.

“You have, I am sure, noticed that during our dinner meetings we never refer to each other by name. That is intentional. If any of us are discovered by the Church authorities we won’t be able to name any of our cohorts. Even the names you know us by are not the same as those we go by in the outside world.

“As I am sure Claude and Ron told you, in order to understand the ridiculous mess the Country has gotten into, you need to know how we got here. In the next few days I am going to try to explain that to you.”

Dennis paused, seeming to select his words carefully, “At one time the United States was a beacon of freedom for the entire world. The Country was actually founded on the idea that people should have certain rights which were actually granted by God. These included the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“The original Constitution specifically forbade the Government from establishing an official religion for the Country. The specific wording was ‘The Congress of the United States shall make no law regarding the establishment of a religion or forbidding the free exercise thereof.’ This held true for over 200 years. Of course there were those who abused this privilege, and those who tried to say that freedom of religion actually should mean freedom from religion, but overall everyone was free to practice the religion of their choice. Many didn’t hold to any religion at all.”

After another pause for Tim to absorb what he had just been told, Dennis added, “The late 20th and early 21st centuries were times of great turmoil throughout the world. In parts of the world a religion called Islam had gained control of some of the countries. The leaders of this religion were intent on controlling the entire world and wiping out Christianity.

“The United States became involved in several wars in countries where Islam was the main religion. Part of this was because some Islamic countries supported terror groups with the intent of trying to overthrow non Islamic countries, including the United States. These wars were, for the most part, civil wars between the two major groups of Islam.

“A major reason for the United States involvement in these wars was to assure a supply of petroleum to meet the energy needs of this Country. By the middle of the twenty-first century the United States had developed alternate sources of energy. This, along with the people of the country being tired of trying to solve the problems other nations, led to a policy of letting them fight it out among themselves.

“This turned out to be the best solution after all. The fighting between the two factions of Islam eventually led to them wearing each other down to where they were no longer a threat to other nations.” Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“But Dennis, what does that have to do with the situation we are in now?”

“There is an old idea in politics that in order to control the people you have to present them with an enemy. Going back to the first part of the twentieth century the enemy was Germany. There were two major wars fought with them between 1910 and 1945. After the first war indeed in 1918 most people thought that Germany would no longer be a problem. They were wrong. More about that in a minute. Once Germany was defeated, the enemy became Russia and Germany became our friend.

“When Russia bankrupted itself trying to outdo the United States in military manpower and equipment, the Islamic states became the main enemy. When this threat faded, the Government needed a new enemy to maintain control over the population. What better enemy can you have than someone in your own country whose belief is different than the majority?” Dennis looked at Tim as if expecting a response.

“I think I’m beginning to understand. Those with strong religious beliefs started to treat others as their enemies.”

“I wish it were that simple, that is a part of it, but it took the apathy of a lot of people to let it happen. It turns out that there was a perfect blueprint for this takeover. I mentioned the wars with Germany. In the 1920’s and 1930’s a man named Adolph Hitler gained control of Germany.

“Once in control he started targeting certain sections of the population for eradication. He started by picking a group that many others disliked or knew very little about. He would then stir up public feeling against members of that group. People in the targeted group would either leave the country or be put in prison. Once a sufficient number of that group was disposed of, he would target some other group.

“By the time people realized just what he was doing, he was in such strong control that everyone in the country either worshiped him, or were so afraid of him that they could not fight back. When he started expanding his empire into surrounding countries by military force, a major war resulted. He was finally defeated, but not before a tremendous number of people died in that war.

“In the late 20th and early 21st century an ultraconservative religious group started pushing their ideology into the public arena. Some members of this group were successful in their bids for election to public office where they could better promote their ideals of religious conservatism. This was possible because only a small percentage of the people voted in many elections, especially the first round where the final candidates were selected.

“In the early days of this movement, some people were delighted that these people were so intense in their beliefs and ready to do almost anything to attain their goals. Others thought this movement was a passing fancy and would soon go away or be absorbed into the mainstream. A few saw the potential of great change and profit for themselves in the success of such a group.”

Dennis paused for breath. “This group evolved into what we now know as ‘The Church’ in this country. Voter apathy allowed this group to gradually take control of the Country. Participation had been declining for years, and even though the approval rating of Congress was at times as low as 10% to 15% and those who did vote kept returning most of the same representatives to Congress. The Church actively encouraged its’ members to run for political office and provided the financial backing to assure they were successful.

“In some parts of the country one political party would be much stronger than the opposition while in other sections the situation would be reversed. Because of this the Church encouraged its’ members to join the political party that was strongest in their community. By using this strategy, even with a turnover rate in congress of about ten percent, the Church had a strong representation in Congress in about twenty years.

“By the middle of the 21st century the Church had become so powerful it managed to get one of its’ leaders, Donald Degan, elected president. During his first term in office he had the almost unbelievable opportunity to appoint five new justices to the Supreme Court. By using various political pressures he was able to get all five of his selections approved by the Senate.

“With control of all three branches of the Government the Church began using the same tactics Hitler had used so successfully. The fighting in the Islamic countries, along with famine and disease, had pretty much eliminated any threat to the United States from any other country. Improvements in technology and new discoveries in the mid twenty-first century allowed the United States to be almost completely self-sufficient. There were no external enemies to use to scare the population. The leaders began a program of developing internal enemies.

“The first to be targeted were the followers of Islam, also known a Muslims. It was easy enough to get the general population stirred up against them. A number of terrorist attacks had been carried out against the United States by Islamic extremists. Because of this, all Muslims in this country were deported, imprisoned, or, in some cases, subjected to mob violence.

“Next to find themselves in the spotlight were the undocumented aliens. These were people who had entered the country without legal permission.They were also an easy target. Complaints were raised that they were taking jobs that should be filled by United States citizens. They were given an ultimatum that was essentially ‘get out or get dead.’

“Other groups took their turn as the target of persecution. Jews, professing atheists, minor ‘Christian’ denominations, Anyone the Church could find a reason to oppress. With the elimination of each group the Church became more and more powerful.

“All this persecution took its toll on society. Many of those targeted by the Church were leaders in science and education. Most of the top people in technical and production areas were also eliminated. As a result the country gradually lost the ability to sustain many aspects of civilized life. With no one trained to maintain and repair critical parts, television and radio stations were soon silenced. The same thing happened in plants deemed ‘non- essential’ to the Church. It wasn’t long before long distance transportation and communication became almost impossible.

“One of the most shocking aspects of all this is how rapidly it happened. People thought the Constitution would prevent this type of change, but once the Church had control of the House of Representative, the Senate, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court it took only a few years to change the Constitution. Of course they changed it to assure the continued dominance of the Church!”

By this time Tim could tell that Dennis was really getting worked up about his subject. Rather timidly he asked, “Did they really kill very many of them?”

“Unfortunately, yes. There is no way to know just how many of various groups have been killed. Fortunately, we were able to recruit many of the top people before the Church got to them. While things out there,” he waved his hand in a vague motion toward the ceiling, “have been going to hell in a hand basket, we’ve been able to make considerable progress down here.

“The same persecution is still going on, but now it’s not so easy to identify who may be targeted. These days, it’s anyone who is in any way a threat to those in power. You are a good example of that!”

“ME!” exclaimed Tim.

“Yes, YOU!” Dennis was just as emphatic. “You are much more of a threat to them than you can imagine!”

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