Posted on 01/06/2002 12:26:31 PM PST by Bump in the night
I agree with you on that. They definately could care less about history. It seems that the liberals are quite willing to deliberately distort history and the truth to get what they want, and the end justifying the means. Sickening, isn't it.
Wrong! Need I quote the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution?
Perhaps while you're quoting it, you would remember what was said below by two Founders. The First Amendment was to protect the free exercise of religion(namely Christianity and perhaps Judaism) from the government, not the other way around. The Founders assumed wrongly(not their mistake, but ours) that the worship of everything from a tree to the devil himself would never arise in this nation. Jefferson is not speaking of Allah, Buddha, a cow, or the Great Pumpkin. The only God that would have been known to anyone this comment was made would be a Judeo-Christian God. And look at the state constitutions of Maryland, Delaware, and North Carolina among others requiring(and not challenged ANYWHERE before the 14th Amendment) the belief in 'Almighty God'
"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"--Thomas Jefferson
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."---John Adams
The First Amendment was to protect the free exercise of religion(namely Christianity and perhaps Judaism)...
The First Amendment was to protect the free exercise of religion PERIOD!
"All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution."--Thomas Jefferson, 1776
"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?" -- James Madison, _A_Memorial_ and_Remonstrance, addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of VA, 1795
From Jefferson’s biography: “...an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, ‘Jesus Christ...the holy author of our religion,’ which was rejected ‘By a great majority in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of every denomination.’”--- Thomas Jefferson
Every man "ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." --- George Washington (Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia in May, 1789)
Agreed, but at the time the Constitution was written Christianity and Judaism were the most prevalent(and I would say only unless you can provide proof of a practicing coven condoned by the leaders of the day). That being said, the most important concern was not whether one planned to be another religion, but how one worshipped within those two religions(Deism condoned but not widely accepted)
The Full Story: Jefferson did say this, but as with other quotes, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of government support of religion. This quotation is taken from a famous letter in which he argues against slavery. Jefferson claimed that slavery violated a person's God-given freedom, although he also owned slaves.
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."---John Adams
The Full Story: This implies nothing regarding the promotion or recognition of religion by government. To the contrary, John Adams was a staunch supporter of religious freedom and of separation of church and state. His specific position was, “Nothing is more dreaded that the national government meddling with religion.” Again... These quotes, at first glance, may appear to contradict the article I posted, but again, when examined more closely, I don't think they actually do.
"...pick a random phrase from it, and declare said phrase to be the law of the land..."
Sounds a lit-tle too much like our present-day Legislation Process....for me, anyways....
...i gotta go and sit down, now.....
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