Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 11
continues to adhere passionately to one church or another and to dream of eternal
salvation. Powerful arguments justifying the allusion in our constitution to the role of a
Creator as the source of all of man’s rights!
In view of man’s unquenchable desire to worship a deity, it is most remarkable that the
founding fathers had the foresight and the courage to keep religion out of the realm of
government. Being a matter of personal choice, religion should be an individual or
family activity, carried out within the rule of law without any support or interference from
the government. In my opinion, as I demonstrate with personal examples throughout
this book, this is one the greatest strengths of America. What was the historical process
that culminated in such great improvement of government?
Despite the energetic universal dominance of the Christian religion in Rome during the
latter years of the Roman Empire, in the mid 4 th Century, Christianity’s center of power
followed political power to Constantinople where the Emperor had moved. By the mid
5 th Century, as a result of the vacuum left in the Western Roman Empire and the
exhaustion of the pagan gods, the barbaric tribes from the East and the North finally
destroyed Rome as the empire’s capital. However, they blended their traditions into the
new Christian religion they now began to accept. But, except for a few monasteries
where some literacy and knowledge was preserved, the masses didn’t change much.
From about the mid 5 th Century to the mid 13 th Century, Europe fell into the depths of
the Dark Ages, keeping only remnants of social organization, culture and civilization.
Ignorance, poverty, fear and personal immobility reigned supreme, with the consequent
destruction of the people’s ability to pursue dreams.
The first significant improvement was felt in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula in
the early 8 th Century. After that part of the peninsula came under the dominance of
North African Moslem emirs, the affected Spanish provinces were in constant turmoil
caused by the clash of two very different groups of people. Yet, out of this conflict, there
arose a climate that fostered centers of trade. The hunger for wealth was at the root of
the new masters tolerance for more commerce. Encouragement of knowledge,
sciences, trade and liberal acceptance of diverse peoples and religions were the bases
of improved living at Cordoba, Valencia, Toledo and Seville. They were ruled by
Moslem emirs, but subject to a tax, the exercise of any religion was allowed. As a result,
they became shining lights of Europe attracting Africans, Arabs, Jews, Slavs and other
Europeans who found that there they had a better chance to develop their aspirations.
After Charlemagne stopped the Moslem advance into France at the close of the 8 th
Century, the relationship between Christians and Moors became more stable. Christian
kings of northern Spain entered a period of armed co-existence with the
Mohammedans, effectively containing their further expansion. But new waves of Islamic
invaders forced renewed confrontations. By the early part of the 2 nd millennium the
knights from the Pyrenees began the Reconquista moved more by a blend of economic
incentive and territorial re-occupation than religious deliverance. As I relate with some
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