“Stab Me In The Back”

That’s What 

Oath of Loyalty Tests Say

It sounds like a good idea.

You keep the riff-raff out of running the show by putting together some kind of test…

You know, the kind that says you’re all the same team, you all see things the same, you all have each other’s backs.

For years, we called these bad boys “Religious Entry Tests.” You pray to the same god as me, and we’ll let you play ball.

Whatever you call them–Orthodoxy Tests, Oath of Loyalty Tests, Religious Entry Tests–they’re about as deadly as bringing snakes on a plane.

Bizzarro Barrett

Religious Tests are deadly–deadly to leaders, and deadly to followers. While Religious Tests promise loyalty in leadership, they’re the biggest way to undermine it short of regicide.

First of all, it’s deadly to leaders because it gives followers an incentive to lie. Thomas Jefferson saw this coming a mile away when he wrote:

“That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public[sic] confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion…tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it.”

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a million times.

I knew a guy at a very Liberal College I used to go to. This guy and I could have been twins. We had the same height, build, personality, everything…we even had the same taste in girls!

But there was one big difference between him and I, and that was that he would always ride the trendy wave of political opportunity that was rising at the moment.

A Jewish Nazi?

When he went to High School, the Rand Paul Libertarian crew was king. So that’s what he was. When he got to college, the Feminists ruled with an iron fist…and that’s what he became too.

Now a guy with the same taste in girls as me…let’s just say that you can’t be a Feminist with that kind of type. It just doesn’t work. It’s like being a Jewish Nazi. You just can’t do it.

But he did it! This guy kept is tastes in chicks under wraps, and went on to do very well in the school newspaper.

I, on the other hand, could never make it, even though I submitted many pieces to the newspaper over time. I couldn’t hack it because I drew the line at living a lie!

I refused to be a Jewish Nazi.

But of course, it was all well and good, because the Feminists on staff had assured the college that only proper and correct voices could be heard from our school newspaper.

But the joke was on them.  

Because while these Feminists were so busy patting themselves on the back that they had won another follower in my friend…

They couldn’t see that they had a Jew working for their very own Feminazi Party!

Adolf Hitler

Will Always Catch on

If you think Religious Entry Tests are only deadly for the leaders, you better think again!

Religious Entry test are also deadly to the followers who change their ways to suit the times…

Because the biggest fear of a fanatic ideologue is working with a Jewish Nazi.

Tariq Aziz found this out the hard way.

“Will The Real Tariq Aziz”

“Please Stand Up?”

Tariq Aziz was a small town boy from northern Iraq, seeking to make his way in the world. He decided to get into the political scene. So in the 1950s, he joined the Baath Party, a group of local fanatics looking to take over the Iraqi government.

The motto of the Baath Party was “The Body of the Nation is Arab and the Soul is Islam.”

Now for Tariq Aziz, this created a problem.

This was a problem because Tariq Aziz was neither Arab nor Muslim…he was an Assyrian Christian, belonging to the Chaldean Church.

His name wasn’t even Tariq Aziz…it was Mikhail Yuhanna. He changed his Assyrian Christian name in order to con his Arab Muslim compatriots.

An Iraqi Never Forgets

Now Tariq Aziz thought this con would carry him far, and it did with one man…Saddam Hussein.

Saddam and Tariq became friends in the 1950s, and Saddam never forgot his loyalty. When he became the dictator of Iraq in 1979, Saddam brought Tariq Aziz on as his number #2 man.

Saddam might have never forgot his loyalty…but he also didn’t forgot that Tariq Aziz was a con. Living in a close-knit tribal society like Iraq, you can’t keep a secret like that for long.

Now you would think as #2 man of a Third World dictatorship, you would be entitled to all the power. You’re only one step below the dear leader himself!

That would make sense, but not for a con like Tariq. Saddam made his followers treat his #2 man like a second-class citizen…just like they would any Christian in the Muslim majority country.

Saddam’s flunkies treated Tariq like a low-level janitor, insulting him in Saddam’s presence, and not even allowing Tariq to see Saddam without scheduling an appointment with party members lower level than him.

“You Didn’t Get The Memo?”

Things came to a head in 1982, when Saddam Hussein held a secret conference with his entire cabinet.

The Conference was called so Saddam could announce his new policy: from here on out, Iraq would pursue a policy of ISIS-style Islamism. Saddam ordered his flunkies to fill the torture chambers and shallow graves with the bodies of Christians.

But there was one flunky not in attendance at the meeting.

Tariq Aziz.

Saddam ordered his cabinet members not to inform Tariq of the meeting.

When he finally found out, he rushed in 20 minutes late…only to find out his own people were on the chopping block.

In Memory Of Mikhail Yuhanna

Saddam kept Tariq around as a pet for 21 more years. A tight leash and an electric shock collar was all the freedom the dictator’s second in-command enjoyed.

In 2003, the United States liberated Iraq, and Tariq Aziz was arrested for crimes against humanity. He was put on trial, found guilty of genocide, and was sentenced to the death penalty.

Not an Arab Muslim came to his defense…

But his own people did.

The Chaldean Christian Church of Iraq lobbied to get Tariq Aziz off the chopping block…even though he hadn’t been so kind when Saddam put these same Christians there twenty years before.

But the truth was, the Chaldean Church didn’t do it to save Tariq Aziz.

They did it to save one of their own, a small town boy from North Iraq named Mikhail Yuhanna.   

Tariq Aziz died in his prison cell, knowing that the people he served had abandoned him…

And the people he abandoned had saved him.

The Bottom Line

Religious Entry Tests don’t work. They’re deadly for leaders. They’re deadly for followers. They promote lying, two-timing, and double-dealing.

Whether you are a leader or a follower; whether you are Left or Right; whether you call them Orthodoxy Tests, Oath of Loyalty Tests, or Religious Entry Tests…

They’re a sign that says: “Stab Me in The Back.”