The Founding Fathers vs. the Confounding Bothers
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_richard__060426_the_founding_fathers.htm
OpEdNews - USA
April 26, 2006
The Founding Fathers vs. the Confounding Bothers
Falwell and Robertson wouldn't like the founding fathers
By Richard Mathis
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of
maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary
operation. 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."
James Madison
Abraham Lincoln would have a very hard time getting elected president today
as a Republican. The champions of traditional American values would never
accept Lincoln for having failed to join a church, thinking the Bible is
fallible and questioning the divinity of Jesus. When they found about his
wife holding seances in the White House, it would be tame compared to with
what happened to Bill Clinton.
Brethren like Pat Robertson are not going to tolerate any deviation from
traditional values exactly like the ones they espouse themselves. Further,
they believe that only approved Christians are entitled to be American
citizens. According to Robertson:
“The Constitution of the United States . . . is a marvelous document
for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the
document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they
can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And that’s what’s
been happening.”
Regarding atheists, humanists and liberals, Reverend Jerry Falwell said:
“Modern U.S. Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the
Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the founders
had in mind in the First Amendment of the Constitution.”
Pat Robertson further expounded that atheists, humanists and liberals have
kept conservative Christians:
“...in submission because they have talked about separation of church and
state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It’s a lie of the Left,
and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
In short, the confounding bothers like Falwell and Robertson preach that
they must save America by returning to the original intents of the founding
fathers. As a liberal I totally agree. Listen to what George Washington
wrote to the Comte de Lafayette on the subjects of atheism and cultural
pluralism in America. Washington wrote that he was “no bigot myself to any
mode of worship” and that regarding the religion of immigrants that for
Washington “If they are good workmen, . . . they may be Mohammedans, Jews,
or Christians of any sect, or they may be atheists.”
What’s this? George Washington didn’t care if an American citizen was an
atheist, Jew or Moslem. My goodness, the founding fathers intended this to
be a Christian nation! Surely, they didn’t intend for a separation of
church and state. After all, according to Pat Robertson, talk of separation
of Caesar and God didn’t appear in the American Constitution but “only
appeared in the constitution of the communist Soviet Union.”
My, my: if you talk of separation of church and state then you’re a
communist, according to Brother Pat. George Washington had better not say
once again today that “The United States is in no sense founded upon the
Christian doctrine.”
Nor would John Adams be able to sign another treaty that said “ . . . the
government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on
the Christian religion . . . ”
Brother Pat and the Christian Coalition crowd might not enjoy hearing James
Madison, the framer of the Bill of Rights, repeating that “ . . . the
Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of
every man.” Such talk is blasphemy to the religious right who holds that
the only choice you have about religion is whether to kowtow to their state
and corporate supported one-size-fits-all-religion or suffer damnation that
they are glad to go ahead and carry out until Jesus can arrive to carry it
out himself.
Likewise, the modern hypocrites and their media scribes would viscously
attack Madison as un-American and un-Christian if he once again said that
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish
Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the
same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other
Sects?”
My God, Madison was a radical pluralist who promoted a wealth of
viewpoints!
Right on, James Madison, for so well describing the seemingly eternal
plague of theocrats, who are hell bent on ruling the world. Madison’s words
still ring true about state-church unions that
“they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny” that supports “the
thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been seen the
guardians of the liberties of the people.”
Worse, listen to what John Adams wrote:
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation.
But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been
blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the
most bloody religion that ever existed?"
Thomas Jefferson could offer again the radical explanation that
"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot . . . they have perverted
the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon,
unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their
purpose."
Moreover, Falwell, Robertson and flock would burn hearing Jefferson
proclaim that
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction
of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have
not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of
coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
To support roguery and error all over the earth."
What Jefferson would think of Iraq is not hard to imagine, now is it?
In short, the founding fathers were very aware of the dangers of mixing
politics and religion: “Remember the 'index expurgatorius', the
inquisition, the stake, the axe, the halter and the guillotine," wrote John
Adams. The founding fathers warned us about these confounding bothers
because they are forever after the same thing: total dominion over you and
every aspect of your life from telling you when you can be born to when you
can die.
So, with all due respect, I’ll believe George Washington over George Bush
about who can be a citizen. I’ll believe Adams and Madison over Falwell and
Robertson about why this country was founded. And I’ll certainly believe
Madison that these modern day religious right theocrats are ever bit as
dangerous to freedom as they have been over the centuries. No matter how
many sheep skins the hypocrites cover themselves in, the spiritual phonies
are still nothing but ravenous wolves full of hate, greed and war. Like it
or not, brothers and sisters, the theocrats are hungry for more. They are
still thirsty and have yet to have their fill of blood spilt in cultural
and religious wars.
From Jesus was a Liberal
Authors Website: http://jesuswasaliberal.blogspot.com
Authors Bio: Mathis is a writer, speaker and activist. He maintains
http://Jesuswasaliberal.blogspot.com
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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