In December 2011, Governor Rick Perry ran a TV advertisement in Iowa that said: "As president, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage." In doing so, Rick Perry is in fact declaring war on the very political foundation of the United States and on the Founding Fathers. Madison and Jefferson worked hard in Virginia to dis-establish the one dominant church, the Church of England. Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom was greatly admired by French Enlightenment thinkers, among them Jean-Nicolas Démeunier, a lawyer by training and the Secretary of Louis the XVI's brother. Démeunier was the editor of the very influential Encyclopédie Méthodique (1784-1788). His enthusiasm was such that he reproduced Jefferson's entire Bill on Religious Freedom in the article "Etats-Unis," first published in 1786 in this famous Encyclopedia, which convinced the French, three years before their Revolution, that a modern Republic, to be viable, could only separate the state from the churches. When the Bill became law in 1786, thanks to Madison's active lobbying, it introduced a number of remarkable innovations: it upheld freedom of conscience and the neutrality of the state; it abolished the tithes collected by the Anglican clergy; and it opened access to public employment, by prohibiting all oaths of allegiance. This exceptionally ambitious law offered a veritable catalogue of natural rights. It provided that: "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is .... tyrannical." It further provided that "our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more that our opinions in physics of geometry; and it concluded that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whasoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief." Today, the American Supreme Court still defends the establishment clause of the First Amendment and the idea of state neutrality in matters of religion. The metaphor of the Wall of Separation, imagined by Jefferson in his famous letter to the Baptist community of Danbury (1802) is still to this day defended by the Supreme Court, which insists that, in order to prevent the return of intolerance, it is absolutely necessary to maintain a position of neutrality. Any other position would be profoundly unjust in sending the message to non-Christians "'that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents (of Christian churches) that they are insiders, favored members'" (McCreary County v. ACLU, 2005). As Jefferson put it more bluntly in his Notes on the State of Virginia first published in Paris in 1784 by the printer Philippe-Denis Pierres: "The legitimate powers of Government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor break my leg."
There is today a very practical way to rediscover the importance of the idea of religious neutrality, as expressed by a key Founding Father: It takes a short visit to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History which is currently displaying the newly restored original copy of the "Jefferson Bible. The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English." This "Bible" eliminates all the elements falsely based on "superstition" from the Gospels, in order to create a new civic culture based on the idea that Jesus was in fact a rational thinker, comparable to other great philosophers. In purging the New Testament of its miracles and of the very notion of the Resurrection, Jefferson claimed he was separating the "diamonds" from a "dunghill." This revisionist Bible was published by the Congress in 1904 and distributed for free to the members of the Congress until the early 1950s. It served as a useful reminder of the Founders'commitment to religious neutrality. Copies of the Smithsonian's restored edition of the Jefferson Bible should again be distributed to US law-makers, to remind them that their political tradition is solidly anchored in the philosophy of the European Enlightenment. If there is one commandment defended by the Founding Fathers it is: Thou shalt not have an established church, and certainly not Christianity to the exclusion of other religions or even atheism.
James Zogby: GOP Candidates Discuss Israel-Palestine
This guy has the opposite of the Midas Touch
God's eye and pyramid are Hermetic/Masonic NOT Xtian symbols. ETC.
"I tremble when I think that God is just." (paraphrase)
Separation of church and set is founded in the first amendment. This government shall not make any law concerning the establishment of religion. Government may not endorse or be motivated by religious principles. This was founded on the principle of equality for all: if one religion is endorsed above others by the government, it naturally creates a privileged environment where religious intolerance may be bred.
This amendment was subsequently defended by our founding fathers in their letters to several religious communities throughout the new country. Washington and Jefferson were particularly good at this. If you want another LEGAL document supporting this, check out the treaty of Tripoli: "our government is in no way a Christian nation." (paraphrase)
Though our Fathers may have had a Christian "heritage," meaning they were brought up in a world dominated by Christianity, this perspective must be examined: This country had its chance to say, undeniably and irrefutably, that the US is a Christian nation. But there is nothing, no legal or constitutional language, that creates a religious nation. NONE. Religion failed. Secularism won.
If you truly knew your history, you would know that separation of church and state is never mentioned in any government document! It was in a letter from Jefferson to the Dansbury Baptists.
I can show you literally thousands upon thousands of quotes that support the strong Christian beliefs of our forefathers. The history I am studying is the history kept on record at the Library of Congress. By the way, I am only months away from a Ph. D. in history. I do not say this to brag but to make a point that this is not something I take lightly. Secular society knows that the records on file in Washington are the real deal. That is why they try to give you false stories and events. If anybody out there wants to know the truth, just look for yourselves. Do not take my word for it or anyone elses.
If our schools taught civics, Americans would grow up with the knowledge to safeguard this country from power seekers who have no plans to uphold the Constitution. But our schools don't teach civics. So where do people get the knowledge they need?
Separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of our Constitution much like the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances. In the Constitution, the founders did not simply say in so many words that there should be separation of powers and checks and balances; rather, they actually separated the powers of government among three branches and established checks and balances. Similarly, they did not merely say there should be separation of church and state; rather, they actually separated them by (1) establishing a secular government on the power of "We the people" (not a deity), (2) saying nothing to connect that government to god(s) or religion, (3) saying nothing to give that government power over matters of god(s) or religion, and (4), indeed, saying nothing substantive about god(s) or religion at all except in a provision precluding any religious test for public office. Given the norms of the day, the founders' avoidance of any expression in the Constitution suggesting that the government is somehow based on any religious belief was quite a remarkable and plainly intentional choice. They later buttressed this separation of government and religion with the First Amendment, which constrains the government from undertaking to establish religion or prohibit individuals from freely exercising their religions. The basic principle, thus, rests on much more than just the First Amendment.
– John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli (1796), ratified unanimously by the US Senate in 1797
"I contemplate with solemn reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."
— Thomas Jefferson, "To Nehemiah Dodge and Others, A Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut," January 1 , 1802
“It will never be pretended that any persons employed in [the formation of the American governments] had interviews with the gods or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”
– John Adams, “A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America,” 1787
Read Benjamin Franklin's Essay on Tolerance, Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, and the works of Ethan Allen, John Adams, George Washington and others who felt the same way and were Deists or Freemasons who respected all religions -- and wanted a government that respected all religions -- because otherwise there can be no freedom of religion.
Read Quotes from the Founding Fathers Regarding Religion, at http://messenger2.cjcmp.org/foundingfathers.html