alt.education

On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:20:11 -0700, El Guapo wrote:

> True, but of those that founded the nation how many were Christian? How
> many pantheists or deists? Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan
> Allen, James Madison, James Monroe, etc... professed deism. Then there
> is John Adams and the Treaty of Tripoli that states verbatim that the US
> was not founded on Christianity. So perhaps for the sake of argument, it
> should be seen that the modern (and perhaps last century) Christian
> movement wishes and has in some part succeeded in inserting Christianity
> into the impetus of the founding of the nation, whether that be the case
> or not.

Agree.. you left out Paine, btw, who was hardly a fan of any church.
I believe this attempt at Christian insertion goes back much further. The
philosopher turned politician Jefferson had to politic the powerful
churches when he ran for president. However, what christian sits down and
literally cuts up the bible, right?

Anyway, my point was the way the argument is framed. If framed as such
the conclusion is self-evident. If the qualifications you speak of had
been a part of this argument.. there would be no argument at all. Again,
my point.

The absolute proof, to me anyway, that this whole "christian nation"
business is really a mute point out of the gate is that nothing was
specifically written into the Constitution.

On the other hand the fight to inject church into state made by some is
not grounds to attack the practice of religion.

IMO, the real issue or wisdom behind the establishment clause is not to
protect the state from church but to protect the churches from one
another. This is where the real myth comes in - the fallacy that there
is, ever was, or could such a thing as one 'church' or homogeneous belief
system inside ANY religion.