In history. Thomas Paine (1736-1809), had a huge influence on the attitudes and beliefs of the founders of this nation, especially when it came to the subject of religion. Our founders had seen first-hand the horrors of what happens in theocratic nation-states and they had seen first-hand the horrors the Catholic Church committed in Europe. They did not want that here in America. Before you dive into Paines quote below, you need to know that his theological beliefs fall under the term deism, which is what ALL the founders of America were--they WERE NOT Christians, and this nation WAS NOT founded by Christian religious zealots (no matter how many times Glenn Beck and other right-wingers say otherwise...) In the Age of Reason (1795), he wrote, The mind of man communicates with itself. This is a deist value. Quote-- I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy. But, let it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work (ref. Age of Reason), declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them. 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. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me to be no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. --End quote. This is the basis of deism, and nearly all the founders, Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, etc, were deists, not Christians. The people who say they were are literally re-writing history right under our gullible noses. Paines values were critical to establishing the separation of church and state in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights--that America is secular, not a theocracy and that all Americans (citizens only, not corporations--corporations do not have rights) have the right to practice their beliefs. In case you didnt know, the separation of church and state not only protects citizens from abuses of churches, but it protects churches from abuses by the state--it goes BOTH ways. If we were to follow the rantings of the extremists and declare American to be Christian, what would that mean to the freedom of other religions? Would we burn down their churches? Should we shoot anyone who isnt Christian? Perhaps hang them from trees? Perhaps we should burn them as witches which is what the Christian Puritans did in Massachusetts in the 1600s and early 1700s. No--we are not a Christian nation, nor should we allow right-wing extremists to walk us down that path no matter how enticing and beautiful they make it look.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:29:07 +0000
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