The Church Of Me

The Church Of Me

The nation was created by Christians fleeing religious persecution by other Christians, founding it not as a Christian nation (they had seen the danger in uniting Church and State.)  However, over hundreds of years the nation evolved, as did its religion, which was a new version of Christianity, dissolving the separation of Church and State.  The nation’s new religion?  The Church of Me. 

Traditional religions had shrunk: Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other religions dwindled in the face of the Church of Me, whose main doctrine was: life is all about me (as you secretly believed, despite experience,) and, therefore, you deserved better.  Others suffer while you succeed?  Their problem.  Everyone recognized the inherent contradiction—throwing believers against each other—but to discuss it was heresy. 

No one knew who created The Church of Me.  It had no bureaucracy.  Believers, true to the religion, refused to donate (charities had disappeared.)  A true grass roots movement, it had led to a competitive society.  And the nation was at war with other nations—not physical war, which involved risks (and the nation had no Army, only drones—) but it had initiated tariff wars, trying to force export prices to drop and foreign investment to increase.  The nation’s economy plummeted. 

Eventually foreign investment increased so much that foreign nations owned most of the country.  They exported much of the nation’s food and minerals while lowering wages and decreasing health care.  When the nation’s citizens objected, the foreign nations informed them that, overseas, they had to do it because they also worshipped the Church of Me.