I'm tired of hearing every politician spout it, and every self-aggrandizing,
middle-aged, white Christian post about it on Facebook! Seriously folks, read
just a little bit of history and see that the phrase: "America was founded
on Judaeo-Christian principles and we are, at heart, a Christian Nation!"
isn't even remotely true. Don't believe me? No problem, let's just ask the
people who actually founded the nation about their personal thoughts on
Christianity, shall we?
Thomas Jefferson (3rd President, wrote the Declaration of
independence . . . maybe you heard of him?):
Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian. In point of fact, many
of his writings clearly question the divinity of Jesus Christ and he held himself
to be a Deist, when he allowed that he was member to any organized religion at
all.
"The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could
not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of
government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me
no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither
picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. ... Reason and free enquiry are the only
effectual agents against error."
-- Thomas Jefferson, in the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the
common law."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February
10, 1814
Benjamin Franklin (Statesman, founding gather, inventor of
the stove . . .):
"Here is my Creed, I believe in one God, Creator of the
Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That he ought to be worshipped.
That the most acceptable Service we render to him, is doing Good to his other
Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in
another Life respecting its Conduct in this ... As for Jesus of Nazareth ... I
think the system of Morals and Religion as he left them to us, the best the
World ever saw ... but I have ... some Doubts to his Divinity . . ."
-- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Ezra Stiles 1790
"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good
works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ...
or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise
men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Works, Vol. VII, p. 75
John Adams (1st Vice President, 2nd President, kind of a
famous Boston dude . . .):
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense,
founded on the Christian religion.”
-- John Adams
“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?”
George Washington (1st President and all around America
Bad-Ass!!):
"Every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and
being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be
protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own
conscience."
-- George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber
of Virginia, May 1789
"I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the
path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To
this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation,
respecting religion, from the Magna-Charta of our country."
-- George Washington,
responding to a group of clergymen who complained that the Constitution lacked
mention of Jesus Christ, in 1789, Papers, Presidential Series
"I have diligently perused every line that Washington
ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges,
himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I
have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing
more."
-- The Reverend Bird
Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in an interview with Mr.
Robert Dale Owen written on November 13, 1831
James Madison (4th President, Father of the U.S. Constitution,
and married to the ice cream chick!):
"We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth 'that
religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging
it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.'
The religion, then, of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience
of every man: and that it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may
dictate."
-- James Madison, A
Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments
"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? That
the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only of
his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform
to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?"
-- James Madison, A
Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments
In point of fact, most of the "Founding Fathers"
of this nation were Deist, not Christian at all. Deism believes in the
existence of a divine being, without the trappings of any religion and, in
particular, Deists are noted for their disbelief in the Judaeo-Christian
concepts of worship. Deists prefer the concept of man's rational enlightenment,
and peaceful co-existence, leading them towards a closer relation with the
"Supreme Architect" of the Universe. So, for all of you who keep spouting
about America, the Great Christian Nation . . . please just stop. Your mommy
and daddy were not present at the creation of this nation and the beliefs they
taught you in no way apply to this nation as a whole.
Oh, and just for fun - here are a few quotes from some other
famous Americans you may have heard of:
Abraham Lincoln (16th President, Great Emancipator, and he
was in those Bill & Ted films . . .):
"The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my
profession." --Abraham Lincoln
His former law partner, William Herndon, said of him after
his assassination: "[Mr. Lincoln] never mentioned the name of Jesus,
except to scorn and detest the idea of a miraculous conception. He did write a little work on infidelity in
1835-6, and never recanted. He was an out-and-out
infidel, and about that there is no mistake." He also said that Lincoln "assimilated
into his own being" the heretical book Age of Reason by Thomas Paine.
Thomas Payne (Author of "Common Sense" and
"The Age of Reason" and if you've never read those, you're not
entitled to take part in this here conversation!):
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish,
Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to
terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
--Thomas Paine
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish
Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the
Protestant Church, nor by any Church
that I know of. My own mind is my own
Church. Each of those churches accuse
the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
--Thomas Paine
I'll throw my lot in with those voices any day . . .
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