Largely faithful, they knew religious wars had long been a destructive force in the lives of nations, and they had no wish to repeat the mistakes of the world they were rebelling against. And yet they bowed their heads.So it was.
Posted on 04/03/2006 7:48:12 AM PDT by RWR8189
April 10, 2006 issue - America's first fight was over faith. As the Founding Fathers gathered for the inaugural session of the Continental Congress on Tuesday, September 6, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Thomas Cushing, a lawyer from Boston, moved that the delegates begin with a prayer. Both John Jay of New York and John Rutledge, a rich lawyer-planter from South Carolina, objected. Their reasoning, John Adams wrote his wife, Abigail, was that "because we were so divided in religious sentiments"—the Congress included Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and others—"we could not join in the same act of worship." The objection had the power to set a secular tone in public life at the outset of the American political experience.
Things could have gone either way. Samuel Adams of Boston spoke up. "Mr. S. Adams arose and said he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue who was at the same time a friend to his country," wrote John Adams. "He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duche (Dushay they pronounce it) deserved that character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to the Congress tomorrow morning." Then, in a declarative nine-word sentence, John Adams recorded the birth of what Benjamin Franklin called America's public religion: "The motion was seconded and passed in the affirmative."
The next morning the Reverend Duche appeared, dressed in clerical garb. As it happened, the psalm assigned to be read that day by Episcopalians was the 35th. The delegates had heard rumors—later proved to be unfounded—that the British were storming Boston; everything seemed to be hanging in the balance. In the hall, with the Continental Army under attack from the world's mightiest empire, the
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ping to read later
Weren't the Pilgrims a church relocation program?
Ho hum...
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution,
Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up
until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous
gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always
votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due
to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years,
these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage."
These quotations by historian Alexander Tyler were written more than 200 years ago, around the time of the founding of our democracy, and was based on what was then history - the democracy of ancient Athens. This is profound. The reason that history repeats itself is because people are ignorant of history, and do not learn its lessons.
"...However dominant in terms of numbers, Christianity is only a thread in the American tapestry—it is not the whole tapestry. (it doesn't matter what percentage of the tapestry this thread is, it's "only a thread"?) The God who is spoken of and called on and prayed to in the public sphere is an essential character in the American drama, but He is not specifically God the Father or the God of Abraham. (Which God is Psalm 35, mentioned at the beginning of the article, referring to, then?) The right's contention that we are a "Christian nation" (why the "right's" contention?) that has fallen from pure origins and can achieve redemption by some kind of return to Christian values is based on wishful thinking, not convincing historical argument.(It's too bad right wingers such as John Marshall and John Jay did not have the benefit of this article to get their history straight) Writing to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1790, George Washington assured his Jewish countrymen that the American government "gives to bigotry no sanction..." (stated as if the the historical assertion that we were a nation born of Christianity is bigotry.)"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." First Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Jay to Jedidiah Morse February 28, 1797
"The American population is entirely Christian, and with us Christianity and Religion are identified. It would be strange indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity, and did not often refer to it, and exhibit relations with it." John Marshall, in a letter to Jasper Adams, May 9, 1833, JSAC, p. 139. Marshall was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801-1835.
And so forth.
Cordially,
Largely faithful, they knew religious wars had long been a destructive force in the lives of nations, and they had no wish to repeat the mistakes of the world they were rebelling against. And yet they bowed their heads.So it was.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Why? Because we were a Christian nation - the only place in history where Jews would not be persecuted.
The Jews thrived in America because America was populated by Christians who were truly devoted to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Can anything more twisted come from the MSNBC clan?
Semantics. We were a nation of Christians and for all practical purposes, a Christian nation. It was because of that fact that our government was created in the matter it was, not despite it.
You should read Snopes on that quote, there is no record of Alexander Tyler ever writing that according to them.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp
Those darned e-mails...
After having been burned by a few emails I almost always check them through snopes anymore. Your's caught my eye because it seemed almost too perfect to be true.
It actually could be called "fake, but accurate."
:-)
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