Sarah Palin apparently hasn't heard of Separation of Church and State. Here's what she said at a Women of Joy conference in Kentucky last week, attended by 16,000:
"God truly has shed his grace on thee -- on this country. He's blessed us, and we better not blow it. And that's why I talk about politics. Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers. Hearing any leader declare that America isn't a Christian nation . . ."
In her usual obnoxious, snarky, grating manner, Palin's "any leader" reference was clearly directed at President Obama, who in a 2006 speech said, "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation--at least not just--we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers."
Well, I happen to be one of those Jews Obama was referring to. And until The Wasilla Wonder regrettably slithered onto the national political scene I, like many people, had this crazy notion that America is the great Melting Pot. Not a Christian nation, but a secular one with a majority of citizens who just happen to practice Christianity. Big difference. The truth is, the number of people calling themselves Christians has declined 10% over the last 15 years. And maybe this decline can be attributed to the polarizing rhetoric of good Christian folk like Palin and others before her who've served to turn many off to religion. Which may explain why the fastest growing group in America are the non-believers. Sarah Palin: Poster Girl for Atheism.
Right wing radio blowhard John Gibson on Wednesday vehemently supported Palin's exclusionary statements on the premise that a majority of Americans call themselves Christians, therefore America's a Christian nation. Gibson is certainly not alone in this belief. I wonder, since there's a Democratic president and a majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress, if Palin, Gibson & Company would agree that we're a Democrat nation? To the contrary, these propagandists believe, as Sean Hannity claimed Wednesday for the umpteenth time, that America is a "center-right nation." Apparently, these hate-mongers' definition of "majority" is rather convoluted.
Someone needs to give Palin a history lesson (along with all the other lessons she needs for the myriad areas for which she is woefully ignorant) focusing on the doctrine of Separation of Church and State, which the Founding Fathers very intentionally created to keep government out of religion, and vice versa. Specifically addressed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, government is prohibited from establishing a national religion and giving preference to one religion over another. "Our Constitution established a secular government and has no mention of Jesus, Christianity, or a god of any kind, despite the false message spread by figures such as Sarah Palin who claim that America was founded as a Christian nation," reminds Paul Fidalgo of the Secular Coalition for America.
How ironic that the very same leaders who incite so much Tea Party passion about "small government" and "freedom" are the very same people who (a) want government to make decisions about religion and (b) want minorities to feel as if they're less American than those nation-owning Christians. But Palin, like Hannity, Gibson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and all the other conservative and Tea Party instigators, is dangerously pouring gasoline onto her base's guns/God/gays flames in a shameless campaign to divide the nation and demonize all those who disagree with her gangster government-in-exile. Now that she's done her Arctic best to turn whites against blacks, she's desperately trying to rile up Christians and turn them against Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists to name a few. Her religious and racial rabble rousing--and that of her cohorts--is despicable. Get ready gays, you're the next stop on the Palin & Co. hate train.
I'm sorry Sarah, but this is my America too, dammit. I want people like you to stop telling the rest of us what America represents and to whom. I want you and your myopic, small-minded thought-bandits to stay out of my body, my bedroom and my religiosity or lack thereof. I want you to stop claiming "we need to take America back." Back from what... blacks, Jews, atheists, gays? You want America back? How about putting together a serious platform of ideas and candidates and get elected, just like Obama and the Democrats who control both houses of Congress. Palin obviously needs to be reminded that in the last election, voters overwhelmingly rejected her brand of "history" and vision for the future.
On a side note, to further illustrate the utter ignorance emanating from the right lately, consider what Gibson had to say Wednesday on whether America is a racist country: "We know that it isn't. It's just down to a couple of Klansmen... There essentially is no racism left in America... and Democrats need to keep racism alive to hold onto the black vote. They know that black people love to hear that racism is running amok." Sorry Gibson, you narrow-minded racist nitwit, black people don't need to "hear" about racism from arrogant white fools like you... they live it. Thanks for showing us firsthand just how alive it really is. You should be ashamed of yourself. In fact, I'm embarrassed for you.
Onto another subject... we could use your help at The The Adrienne Shelly Foundation. We're a 501 c 3 tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated in my late wife's honor, and with a simple mission: supporting women filmmakers. Adrienne, who wrote, directed and starred in the hit film WAITRESS, was killed November 1, 2006. Through the Foundation, her commitment to filmmaking lives on. We've established scholarships, grants, finishing funds, screenwriting fellowships and living stipends at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts/Kanbar Institute of Film; Columbia University; American Film Institute; Women in Film; IFP; the Nantucket Film Festival; the Tribeca Film Institute; and the Sundance Institute. Your generous contribution will go a long way towards helping us achieve this very important mission. Please click here to make a donation. Thank you.
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Sarah Palin may not have the ivy league degree, be as polished and eloquent as President Obama, but I can guarantee that her support of Israel is unwavering.
America's religiosity is rapidly changing and it dosen't look good for the religious right It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that up to half of all evangelical students once they get to a university and learn something about the real world lose their religion Recent polls have shown that over 40% of young adults 30 and younger have "no religion" We can see our future in countries like those in Scandinavia and Europe Even in Italy only 23% of people attend mass regularly In Frabnce it is less than 10% It's easy to say you are a christian but if you don't go to church and you don't read the Bible you aren't really
BUT, MORALS PRE-DATE CHRISTIANITY BY THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
"THEIR CREATOR" WAS A GOD OF NATURE
THEIR RELIGION ,IF YOU WANT TO CALL IT THAT, WAS DEISM.
AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE CONSTITUTION IS A SECULAR DOCUMENT REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY LIES PALIN TELLS OTHERWISE AND HOW MANY TIMES YOU REPEAT THE HER LIES.
Since the founders were christians, she assumes that they intended this to be a "christian nation". It seems beyond her level of comprehension that someone could simultaneously be religious and be fearful of the mixing of government and religion.
"the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion"
now there seems to be some dispute that this sentence does not appear in the original arabic version of the treaty, but that seems to be an argument that holds no merit for our purposes. if john adams put his signature to an english version form that said we are not a christian nation, it seems immaterial to note that the arabic version may not have said the same thing. adams was stating that we are not a christian nation.
the so called 'christian nation' republicans can argue all day long that their version of christian is and always was the only version of christian, but they would be wrong. our nation was founded on the idea of religious freedom, not the idea of christian freedom. freedom of religion means freedom of religion, not freedom to be christian.
Liberals try to overstate and cherry pick form the four fathers and to try and deny that this is a christian nation founded by christians who were tolerant of other religions. To mention Jefferson speak of freedom of religion and not talk about how he warned against a mixing of cultures is a glaring omission. Almost like you are choosing what you like and ignoring the rest.
Either Jefferson is a true hero and we should follow him in all his writings or we ignore him. Cant have both.
Why would that be? Being a leader, "hero", inspiration, or role model does not (and in a real world cannot) require perfection.
I doubt that either liberals or conservatives fully understand what Jefferson intended, and I agree that studying all his writings is important to improving that understanding. But a reasonable person can still disagree with Jefferson on some issues.
of course they were forefathers, not four fathers, but that is a nit.
the true fact is that christians also like to cherry pick. they choose which verses of the bible to follow and which to ignore. (eating shrimp, for example, outlawed in the bible. charging interest, outlawed in the bible.)
if you want to argue that you must accept all of jefferson or none of it, same arguement should hold true for christians. either you accept all of the bible or none of it.
As for the whole right wing meme that racism is dead, that's almost a bigger line of BS than the whole "our founders were Christian" claptrap. My parents moved down to North Carolina 5 years ago and their next door neighbor is the local head of the KKK; every Tuesday night over a 100 men show up for some barbecue, gun hugging and white sheet wearing. What's even more disturbing is that their neighbor is considered a model pillar of their community. He also still has a McCain/Palin sign up on their club house door. I know exactly who supports this woman and her brand of "patriotism".
Also Article 6 says "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States"
1. Know means to be well informed about, to recognize.
2. No means not at all.
3. Knew is the past tense of "know".
4. New means appearing, thought of, made for the first time.
And, I like Tom Harkin.