Unknown Artist, after Jacob Matham:
Justice
(17th Century)

"…just a self-proclaimed son of a bitch."

Justice serves as a secular society’s primary religion, for it promotes fairness, ethics, and even morals. It properly seeks to treat everyone fairly and as impartially as humanly possible. It performs retribution when necessary, but also seeks to restore and repair when harm occurs. In any society proclaiming freedom of or from religion, such as ours, Justice might well serve as the bastion defending any individual religion from persecution. In this second- or third-degree paradox, the secular protects the sacred. In an instance where a religious belief attempts to overtake a civil society, which one might reasonably argue describes the MAGA desecration our incumbent has attempted, Justice might reasonably be the first focus of insurrectionists because they might believe it properly threatens any other sacred movement’s dominance. Those who firmly believe, for instance, that these United States should properly be ruled as a White Christian Nation stand opposed to the secular religion that each formal religion’s practice utterly depends upon, be it Christian, Muslim, Taoist, or otherwise. White Christian Nationalists undermine their own insistences without recognizing they do.

Of all the insults visited upon our society by our incumbent and his minions, the assault on our sacred secular religion has proven the most terrifying. Who could have imagined judges fighting on the front lines, virtually unassisted, against such a dedicated insurrection? Apparently led by the Attorney General and the Chief Justice of our severely wounded Supreme Court? Who could have likewise ever imagined lawyers, those in whom our society has vested the role of Agents of our Courts, flagrantly violating the sacred faiths entrusted to their care: the Duty of Candor and the Adherence to Rules. These principles were always non-negotiable before. Now, a few Jehus violate their sacred trust with ironic religious fervor, another second- or third-degree paradox recently introduced into an already overly complicated equation, bending contradiction back upon itself, apparently for their own fun and excessive profit. The simple contradiction that any nation might thrive under the exclusive auspices of any individual religious belief or tradition begs to be negated.

Our civil Justice was founded on the principle that we would be much better off not relying on Onward Christian Soldiers to defend our society against foreign or domestic enemies, that we would have to transcend doctrine to provide the requisite variety a truly free and just society utterly relies upon. Those attempting to govern by haberdashery, or some similar tomfoolery, disrupt an essential focus. Relying on such trivial aspects undermines, rather than enhances, proper governance. Our present Secretary of the newly declared Department of Defensiveness, the one who insists that he’s really the secretary of war (deliberate small caps here), as if he were Jupiter or thunder or something, makes much noise about essentially nothing. He leads a cadre of Backward Christian Soldiers mustered as if to bore, to remind us why we depend upon Justice and not the ridiculous rule of any man or formal religion except the secular kind capable of civilly balancing belief and faith. What’s next from these clowns, Swiss Guards in tights wielding pikes? Cripes!

As of this writing, the wrestling has not resolved much. The tussle continues with increasing fervor, some of it religious, though this tide seems likely to turn with the midterms. Thank heavens or Justice, one or the other, that our founders distrusted even the governance they entrusted to their progeny. They distrusted it enough to provide for ample checks and balances, like mid-term elections to encourage The People, the underlying purpose behind our secular civil religion, Justice, to throw out bums who they rightfully expected were probably certain to eventually come along. Well, they appeared on our watch this time and I, for one, feel grateful for the secular nature of our civil religion. I will worship Justice until I draw my final breath, understanding that without it, any odd despot touting a superior connection to God might undermine our noble experiment. Justice stands between us and the sort of damnation only a formal religion can ever inflict. This ain’t yet the Spanish Inquisition, thank Heavens!

I surprised myself with the vehemence with which I presented this topic, for I’m no lawyer or particular do-gooder. It might be that until my secular religion was truly threatened, like anybody, I took it altogether too much for granted. Granted, it was a subtle religion in the absence of any overt, dedicated insurrectionists, but given their emerging presence, I quickly recognized the absolute necessity of Justice, if not immediately mercy. I’ll introduce mercy later, in a future installment, once I’ve properly appreciated the subtle wisdom of the founders who resisted the seduction to found a white Christian nationalist nation, and designed instead one capable of holding any religion as lightly as any of them might require to thrive, and insistent upon independence from every pope and future aspiring potentate that might attempt to leverage their personal relationship with God into the antithesis of the Justice we’ve grown accustomed to enjoying. Anyone who believes their particular religion renders them superior to Justice, our secular one, is just a self-proclaimed son of a bitch.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Comeuppance, #PureSchmaltz