@glitterbag,
I think we are in no danger at all that any church will threaten or endanger our increasingly secular and, in the sense that it increasingly sees its role in nearly every aspect of our lives, totalitarian state. As you imply, real democracy flourishes only with limited government and an active presence of independent civic organizations independent of it.
De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" is still a very refreshing and good read. He contrasted the then (1836) failed French Revolution with it's American counterpart, finding the distinguishing and sustaining features here to be limited government and an emphasis on local government; the existence of a well developed and widely held sense of civic morality among the people; a general focus on the freedom of individuals, together with active civic organizations independent of government; and finally a variant of English Common Law that emphasized civil litigation and the consequent development, from the ground up, of a body of case law based not so much on theory as on pragmatic reaction to disputes. He contrasted that with the highly authoritarian and top down French Revolution with its largely theoretical emphasis on the Rights of Man and revolutionary rule. It quickly degenerated to Tyranny under Robespierre and then Napoleon.
I'll let Layman speak for the definition of cheese eater, though he has done fairly well in defining it pragmatically in identifying the members of that world. I am most certainly not one. I'm actually a really nice guy.
Sounds like your encounter with the Medical world is continuing. I hope you are doing well and that it is over soon.
