Well, not yet, but eventually.
For most of American history, Baptists were stalwart defenders of the separation of church and state and religious freedom. In recent decades, they switched sides because they didn't think any of this through.
Long ago, before the US Constitution was ratified and separation of church and state was a thing, America was a very different place for religions. If the Puritans were in the majority in your town, Puritans used their majority to use the government to persecute other denominations. If Anglicans were in the majority, then non-Anglicans in that town were persecuted, and yes, you could spend time in jail just for being from a different denomination than the majority of a jurisdiction.
I bring up Puritans and Anglicans because both of those denominations persecuted Baptists. It is the memory of those days in which Baptists were persecuted by other denominations simply for not being in the majority in a given town, which is why Baptists were strong defenders of separation of church and state for so much of American history. They remembered their past and knew better than most what would happen if the wall of separation were ever removed. It used to be that whenever a religious minority was being persecuted by the religious majority, it was Baptists who stepped up and joined the fight on the side of religious freedom.
Then Baptists switched sides in the fight over the separation of church and state.
Apparently, they became convinced that they could take over the government, install a Baptist theocracy, and proceed to do to everyone else what was done to them during the colonial era.
A Brief Discussion About Demographics
What makes Baptists so certain that if separation of church and state is removed that they will be able to install a Baptist theocracy? That has to do with the fact that America has representative government (theoretically, at least), and certain demographic considerations.
According to this Wikipedia article, Protestants (42%) outnumber Catholics (21%) by a lot. Two to one, in fact. According to another Wikipedia article, the most numerous Protestants are Baptists. According to a Pew poll cited in the second source above, Protestants are 46.5% of the American population, and the largest group of Protestants are Baptists, who make up about a third of Protestants at 15.4% of the US population.
I'm pretty sure the Baptist reasoning goes something like this:
If a theocracy is established, the resulting theocracy would be Protestant because Protestants outnumber Catholics by two to one. If the theocracy is Protestant, then the theocracy will also be Baptist, because Baptists make up one-third of Protestants. Thus, their reasoning is that 15% of the American population will be able to rule over all the other religious groups.
That should sound insane to you, but this is what is driving the Republican war on American traditions, including the separation of church and state.
Baptists vs Catholics
Thus, Baptists (15% of the US population) believe they can rule Catholics (21% of the US population), and let's be clear: Catholics are very likely to oppose Baptist rule, and Baptists are likely to see Catholics as a threat to their power over everyone.
In order to maintain Protestant rule over Catholics, Baptists need to build a coalition of Protestants capable of outvoting Catholics. This means they need an additional 6% of the US population (around 13% of Protestants) to vote with them to have enough votes to rule over Catholics and start putting Catholics in jail for petty reasons just like Anglicans and Puritans once did to Baptists during colonial times.
So Baptists can create a Baptist theocracy as long as they can get X% of the US population voting with them, and Catholics can rule everyone else if they can get Y% of the US population voting with them. Let's say PB represents The percentage/ratio of the US population that is Baptist (PB = 0.15) while PC represents the percentage/ratio of the US population that is Catholic (PC = 0.21).
Thus, Baptists get a Baptist theocracy if
PB + X > PC + YSubstituting values above, Protestants need to find
X > PC - PB + Y
X > 0.21 - 0.15 + Y
X > 0.06 + Yto vote with them in order to rule everyone else, while Catholics need
Y > X - 0.06to rule over everyone else. Baptists need an extra 6% of the population voting with them and their allies in order to rule, while Catholics need fewer allies (by the same amount) to rule over Baptists.
Please keep in mind that based on colonial history, we know that things are about to get pretty ugly between Protestants at the local level once the separation of church and state is swept away entirely by the radical US Supreme Court.
Granted, Catholics are going to have a difficult time finding allies given their history, but the history of Protestants is only slightly less awful when it comes to persecution of other religions and denominations.
I believe that the Catholics on the Supreme Court made a similar calculation when they started ruling against the separation of church and state in court case after court case. I'm pretty sure they are counting on a coalition of Protestants falling apart, at which point they will be able to rule the nation with 21% of the US population instead of Baptists ruling the nation with 15% of the US population. Given that Baptists are seen as radicals and a threat to democracy after their actions during the pandemic and January 6, it shouldn't be hard for Catholics to find people willing to overlook their history and vote to put them in charge of the American theocracy.
British History
There was a time when Britain had alternating Protestant and Catholic monarchs. This part of British history is a distant memory for most modern Americans, but it would have been fresh in the minds of Americans during the time the wall of separation of church and state was established.
While a Protestant sat on the throne, Catholics had to worship in secret for fear that they would be turned in by their neighbors and punished by the government. While a Catholic sat on the throne, this was reversed and Protestants had to worship in secret, fearing discovery by their neighbors.
At the moment, Baptists and Catholics are working together to end the wall of separation, but it's only a matter of time before they turn on each other, and various Protestants start turning on each other, and America once again sees the return of either an ugly part of British history or the return of an ugly part of American history.
At the moment, everyone working against the wall of separation thinks that if only they can establish a theocracy and rule over everyone else, they will make America a better place. I don't think any of these people bothered to read history.
As an atheist, I am glad that the awful things that are about to happen will accelerate the flood of people leaving Christianity right now. Most of those leaving Christianity are leaving over moral considerations, and the moral landscape of America is about to become very ugly. Even if Baptists and Catholics manage to forge a peaceful and amicable alliance, the best possible case still involves a lot of people leaving Christianity, as happened in the UK after the Anglicans stopped persecuting Catholics. Even if no one is executed or imprisoned for their religious beliefs, there will be enough harm to drive people away from religion entirely.
At this point, American Christians can only change the rate at which people leave Christianity, and I don't think they understand how this naked power grab is only going to accelerate that.
Yorumlar