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Syncretism is the amalgamation of two different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. The blended belief system will become a composite. My opinion is that there would be one overriding reason to do this: one religion or culture seeks to dominate a weaker competitor, or it would subsume one that is perceived as a threat. Most people are familiar with the blending of culture. It happens every day all over the world. One example of it is when one culture conquers or dominates another culture, be that an ethnic group or a country.

Andrew Jackson nearly won the United States Presidency in 1824. His supporters formed the Democratic Party as a result of that failure. The new party united smaller groups who felt disaffected by the policies of the man who did become President in 1824, John Quincy Adams. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. Before he was sworn in, office seekers from the small groups within the Democratic Party (which still exists today) swarmed the White House. Jackson empowered these small groups, plus he acted, imperially, without involving the Congress. The actions of President Andrew Jackson earned a memorable quote from a New York Senator, “To the victor, belongs the spoils.”

This was political syncretism. Essentially, the divided Democratic Party platform was instituted, yet Jackson used the platform to institute his intent to rule authoritatively by squelching opposing views. One of the most infamous aspects of the Jackson Presidency was his forcible removal of the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral lands in North Carolina. Jackson relocated that peaceful native nation of people from their heritage to the frontier of the United States. Many Democratic Party favorites became land owners of former Cherokee land in North Carolina while the Cherokees refer to what happened to them as “the trail of tears.” Make no mistake, syncretism is an extension (another form) of politics, as is warfare.

If you are a religious person, and especially if you believe in one omnipotent God, you might regard syncretism as a principle threat to your religion. I am a Christian, and I believe the Christian religion began when Jesus, recently arisen from death by crucifixion, gave a great commission to Tree removal Quincy MA his surviving eleven disciples. He told them to go out into the world to tell everyone what happened, that he was God’s son, the object of the prophecies, the one to bear mankind’s sin into death, and defeat death for all who believed in him. So, how did Jesus’ message of God’s grace, which has been, and continues to be spread throughout the world, become corrupted with the Easter Egg, the Christmas Tree, and a misrepresentation of the day of Jesus’ birth?

The answer is syncretism. A Roman Emperor converted to Christianity. He mixed the clear message of God’s grace with concern of an emperor about hordes of pagans on Rome’s borders. Emperor Constantine decreed that Christianity would be the empire’s new religion (syncretising all other religions into Christianity). In order to assimilate (syncretise) the hordes of pagans (worshipers of Earth deities) into that religion, he ordered that pagan beliefs, symbols, and holidays must be combined into the new state religion.

The message of God’s love, his grace, and individual salvation, all of which comes to us by the heart, is obscured by the Easter Egg hunt of the pagans, and by the greed of pagans who honor themselves with presents on Christmas Day. Do you perceive personal danger in obscuring God’s purpose? Do you understand that syncretism affronts God, as did the murder of his son, and denial of his existence? #TAG1writer