I have always been intrigued by Martin Luther's condemnation of reason as "Die verfluchte Huhre, Vernunft. (The damned whore, Reason). (See more of his quotes here: http://www.jesuscult.com/Luther_Anti-Reason.htm)
Again, the stress of the cognitive dissonance must be horrific: modern society - including most religious people - revel in the technology that provides us with safer and more efficient cars, access to the worlds / universes of the internets, life-saving and -altering medical science, all of which are brought about through reason and logic and the scientific process, yet condemn any "knowledge" that appears as a threat to their fantastic notions about some all transcendent powerful being who hears the thoughts of every single individual and monitors their thoughts and intentions 24/7/365. Yet, while this transcendent being can't seem to communicate with us directly, can't make his purported "will" known in plain and simple terms, demands abnegation of all logic and suspension of scientific fact in order to save us from ourselves as "he" himself created us.
It's poppycock. Balderdash. Hogwash. Crap.
Seriously, folks, we're surrounded by insanity. Perhaps L. Ron Hubbard was onto something - perhaps Earth is an insane asylum for some sector of the galaxy! LOL!

"I believe, as does Niose, that religion, the “culture wars” that stem from it, and the wave of anti-science/intellectualism will be defining moments of this century."
I am reminded of Frank Herbert's "Dune" and his vague history of the destruction (many thousands of years previously) of computers and the technology of artificial intelligence. (I don't remember what historical name he gave it in the book, sorry.) I suppose it is rather silly to try to imagine what might happen if a theocracy ever does take control of the federal government, but I do wonder if it might not plunge western civilization (such as it is) into a new dark age.
Just as the scientific and mathematical and humanistic writings of the Greek and Roman civilizations were preserved throughout the dark ages in the Arabic libraries of Spain, which when "discovered" gave rise to the humanistic facets of the Renaissance, where might the trove of current technical knowledge be discovered at the end of some new dark age?
Religions are very good at destroying history through revisionism or even destruction - witness the lost religion of the Hawaiian islands. Temples stand in ruins, but the theology and lore is gone - forever!
Just an idle supposing on a boring day at work. :)

The law did pass - which is awfully sad.
I don't mind people being stupid - I often feel that I'm surrounded by idiots - but I lament the fact that now, in 2012, in the United States, stupidity is being institutionalized by government.

Loren - a prime and current example of the church *losing* power is Ireland. After the government's investigations and discovery of mountains of evidence, the Irish Prime Minister (I forget the Gaelic term), speaking as "The State" basically told the church to shut the hell up and go away. The thrust of his message was that Ireland is a sovereign state that kow tows to no one, and that the power of the church was broken. As he was speaking a minion was sent with a summons to the archbishop, ordering him to testify in further investigations: but it was never served, because the archbishop was on his way to the airport - conveniently "recalled" to the Vatican at just the right moment!
Part of the agreement between the church and the Irish State to pay reparations to the tens of thousands of children that were repeatedly abused by priests and nuns and others was that the church would pay tens of millions of Euros. The deadlines came and went and no money was forthcoming from the Vatican. So the Irish State *confiscated* church property and sold it at auction! Brilliant! Not just a slap in the face, but a kick, I should think, to the Vatican's holy balls!
The cumulative effect of the church's lies and cover ups and reneging is that the Irish are leaving the church in droves. The sheeple have rebelled and the Vatican's left pissing into the wind.
Pretty much the same thing happened in Boston when Cardinal Law's cover ups were revealed... but he got a *very* cushy job in Rome as his "punishment".
The archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan, purportedly hid over $300 million in church funds so they could not be used to pay reparations to abused kids in that archdiocese. Further, the black kids that were abused got on average between 15% and 20% *LESS* money than did the white kids that were abused! Dolan's punishment was to be moved to New York where he's now a Cardinal - and the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops.
The church, as you say, has NEVER been about the rights of the individual - unless the individual is a bishop or archbishop or cardinal who undertakes to hide the Vatican's dirty laundry.
The leadership of the RC - bishops and above - are nothing more than corporate scum, 1%ers who care nothing for their followers except how to wring them dry and exploit them for money, power and political control.
Scum. Filthy festering scum.

The epic cognitive dissonance that believers must endure makes my head spin!
Subsuming one's self, one's humanity and will responsibility for choices to the "will" of a supernatural being who purportedly exists beyond all reason and evidence would, in most circumstances, be considered lunacy - madness - insanity. Yet, when such abnegations are couched in religious terms, well that's just ducky, thank you very much.
How do they do it? How do they deny their humanity in hopes of some pie-in-the-sky eternal beyond? It's depressing and disturbing and just plain wrong.
Well - when I get upset about it I try to pity them. Doesn't always work. Heh heh.

I think Loren Miller has nailed it down quite nicely.

Thank you for the insights of your experience.
I agree that the greatest danger to democracy and freedom in the US comes from within. The exercise of political power in the US seems to me to have bent toward one of several extremely high risk paths to world domination - but those powers are now struggling with high debt and deficits, a suffering (bleating?) middle class and the huge cost of the technology of war. These are treacherous waters and all of the pieces required to declare martial law on a national level are all in place. Chris Hedges claims martial law can be declared at just about any time.
Are we already doomed? Can democracy survive in the US? At what cost? And in what form?
I am greatly alarmed - and there's damned little I can do about it.

One. Just one. Let's hope there will be many more convicted of covering up the abuse. I'd like to see it prosecuted on an international level - but the church being as powerful as it is I doubt we'll ever see that.

She's young - just out of college. She may change her mind again at some point.

I read about Dolan's new book and sprained my eyeballs when they rolled!
It would, I think, do the Catholic Church a great deal of good if these rich pampered bishops, archbishops and cardinals would go work side-by-side with a few nuns for a few weeks. Let them see the reality of poverty and the stress of working full-time jobs without health insurance.
They need to put off their priestly finery and don some common humanity for a change.
...but even that wouldn't make any difference to their magical mumbo-jumbo bull shit, alas.