It Was Never The Founding Fathers' Plan The U.S. Be a Christian Nation

[Iceweasel]

The word nation includes the culture of the people. Laws are part of society but don't define who the people are. There are a great many pro-Christian writings from the founders along with implementing some Christianity.

The OP obviously knows nothing about our history, let alone the founders intent.

Public ed at its' finest.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

The word nation includes the culture of the people. Laws are part of society but don't define who the people are. There are a great many pro-Christian writings from the founders along with implementing some Christianity.

The OP obviously knows nothing about our history, let alone the founders intent.

Public ed at its' finest.

And it's only getting worse.

 

[Doc1]

The word nation includes the culture of the people. Laws are part of society but don't define who the people are. There are a great many pro-Christian writings from the founders along with implementing some Christianity.

The OP obviously knows nothing about our history, let alone the founders intent.

Revisionism is what's being taught in schools today. The 3/5ths clause is a perfect example of that.

 

[Lakhota]

It Was Never The Founding Fathers' Plan The U.S. Be a Christian Nation

I agree! Out Godless Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli confirm that fact. BTW, the Declaration of Independence is a "founding" document - but not a "governing" document.

 

[Kat]

.
Despite the many, many claims by Christian conservatives, the Founding Fathers NEVER intended the U.S. be a Christian Nation. It requires little research to discover this fact, but facts are rarely important to conservatives.

However, in the right-wingers' day to day posts on these message boards, they constantly boast of their own intimate knowledge of the Founding Fathers' plan for the United States. Their self-professed expertise in Constitutional law is claimed to be superior, and that the United States was designed exclusively to be a Christian nation.

But during the decades before the authors of the Declaration of Independence crafted that document, and after the U.S. gained its freedom from Britain, the architects of the U.S. Constitution made it ABUNDANTLY clear, in their writings and in the Constitution itself, that religion was to have NO control over the United States Government.

However, conservative extremists appointed to the USSC have seen fit to rewrite certain elements of the Constitution, though they have no legal right to do so.

So, as a brief reminder to the right-wingers, Christian zealots, and others who have forgotten the Founding Fathers' true plan for this nation, here are their own words on the separation of church and state, and why it was first on their list of oppressive forces to prohibit as part of government. (Check the First Amendment)

Following are quotes by the Founding Fathers that accurately sum up the threat religious interference in government poses:

-A Benjamin Franklin quote from "Poor Richard's Almanack" in 1758 states: "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

-From Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1771): "In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.”

-Contained in correspondence with William Bradford, Jr. in 1774 James Madison wrote, "Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects."

-The wisdom of Thomas Paine is known widely, and in The American Crisis No. V (1776) he wrote: "To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead." (The entire pamphlet containing his atheistic beliefs can be found at the following link: Thomas Paine - The American Crisis)

-“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.” Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779)

-James Madison to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1785, "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

-Founding Father, Roger Sherman (elected to Continental Congress, 1774-81, 1783-84; Distinguished member of the Constitutional Convention, 1787; Elected US Senator for Connecticut, 1791-93, stated in 1789), “Congress has no power to make any religious establishments.”

-In a letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, in 1789 George Washington wrote: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”

-In an address to Congress the following year (1790), George Washington stated, "There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

-Today, the world is watching proof of Thomas Paine's statement in 1791's The Rights of Man, “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.”

-"In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws." George Washington, 1793

-"The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The Treaty of Tripoli -- John Adams, 1797

-Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church & State."

The persecution of which Paine speaks is evident in nations following the strict laws of Islam, as women and non-Muslims are often victimized, and do receive harsh treatment at the hands of these governments.

However, before the right-wingers begin puffing up with self-proclaimed righteousness, they should consider the persecution women, non-Christians, illegal immigrants, the poor, and other groups face in this country. The persecution due to recent laws passed by red states, and proclaimed acceptable by the USSC.

-"The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State." James Madison, 1813

-"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." Thomas Jefferson, 1814

It is apparent to all rational people, and even conservatives should comprehend that, the Founding Fathers predicted the damage to individual freedom that is occurring in the U.S. today, all caused by religion's interference in government.


These statements were made by the Founding Fathers in the 18th and early 19th centuries. During that period, those men could never have anticipated the human diversity that would develop in the United States by the 21st century. However, their secular wisdom, and particularly their ability for critical thought, enabled them to accurately predict the damage to individual freedom that is occurring in the U.S. today. These issues are all caused by the Christian religion’s constitutionally prohibited intrusion into government.(Again, read the First Amendment.)


Conservatives are going to be pi$$ed at the Founding Fathers for their intelligence and wisdom. But only if they can overcome their typical conservative denial of facts This WILL require they leave their alternate reality.

.

No Source