Is it me or are liberals now routinely anti Christian and anti Semitic?
It's just you. Because it's always you.
Liberals made sure the right to worship as one chooses was the first thing laid down in the Constitution. So there you go. Don't you.
great care to say something positive about Christianity’s contribution to our civilization??
It was christians who realized that they could be the worst enemies of civilization and society by recognizing the disaster that was the Puritans and self-corrected to a secular government codified with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
It goes back farther than that. It goes back to Constantine and the Catholic church with their Inquisitions and Crusades and Jew bashing.
The issue is mixing God with the state. Jesus warned that his kingdom was not of this world, nor could be. Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the state, even though he still worshipped the pagan gods, although it is rumored he converted on this death bed.
No man seek political power in the name of God. This is what the Founding Fathers knew and why they created a secular government. However, they mention God repeatedly in their writings and prayed before each Congressional session, which they still do. Why? It's because of men like Ben Franklin who realized that it is only through the moral teachings of the Bible that men could be trusted with freedom.
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.