Coincidance - Principia Discordia

192 COINCIDANCE
they will no doubt be exploring the impossible and unthinkable in the near
future, since their politics already contain those elements.
Of course, even in America, absolute religious freedom is only relatively
absolute. There have been a few "hard cases." In the 19th Century, the
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, severely
tested the absoluteness of the Constitution by practising polygamy. The
government decided that was Too Much Religious Freedom, and the army
was called out to arrest the whole Mormon community, then centered in
Salt Lake City. This was undoubtedly unconstitutional and no doubt would
have been reversed eventually by the Supreme Court, but Brigham Young,
then the leader of the Mormons had a convenient new revelation when he
saw all those guns and bayonets: God or the angel Moroni (Mormons have
access to both) told Young that polygamy was only necessary while the
Latter Day Saints were building their community and was no longer
necessary now that the community was built. A head-on collision between
Church and State was thus averted.
A similar "hard case" arose early in this century, concerning the Native
American Church, which is restricted to Red Indians, or, as they prefer to be
called, Native Americans. The NAC uses the psychedelic cactus, peyotl, in
its rites; the government decided they were dope fiends and prosecuted. The
Supreme Court upheld the right of the Native Americans to continue their
traditional religion. (This has been modified by State courts, due to an influx
into the NAC of persons whose Native American-ness was dubious. In
most States now, members of NAC congregations must prove they are at
least 25% Native American to avoid prosecution.)
Another "hard case" or several "hard cases" have been provoked by the
Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse to serve in the armed forces, or to salute
the flag, or to accept blood transfusions, or to allow blood transfusions to be
given to their children. The Supreme Court upheld the JW's right to abstain
from war, but originally ruled that they must salute the flag; this later
decision was reversed by a later Supreme Court. The blood transfusion
matter is still being fought through the State courts, which have mostly
upheld the right of hospitals, when a child's life is clearly in danger, to give
blood transfusions even if the parents' religion is affronted and the
Constitution is a bit bent.
So: American religious freedom is only relatively absolute, but close
enough that almost any cult or sect has an equal chance to proselytize in
what Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once called the
American "free market of ideas."
One modifying influence remained to check metaphysical anarchy: the
Courts had a tendency to regard as bogus any sect headed by a person who