Now, before I get all fired up here, the spirit of full disclosure dictates that I tell you that I make no claims to being a history expert. I do however come armed with the skill of how to do research on something for myself and the knowledge the just because the likes of Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson, Bill O'Riley, Glenn Beck and the other blathering idiots on the right spew something out of there incompetent, incendiary, made for TV, "Send me your money today" mouths dose not make it so.
With all that out of the way, here are some of the steaming piles of bullshit these people are trying to shovel on our heads.
"America was founded on Christian principles"
This is one that I hear on an almost daily basis and usually coming from those who want to force there religion on us all. Well, the fact is that most of our founding fathers were Christians and the principals that they felt people should live by were indeed the principals of a good christian however, everyone that touts the great revolutionaries such as Franklin, Jefferson, Washington and the rest of the gang as great Christians seem to forget, ignore or are just plain ignorant (because they've never bothered to to the research for themselves) of a rather inconvenient fact. That inconvenient fact (or at least inconvenient to today's Christian Right anyway) is that although our founding fathers were Christians in so far as they believed that Jesus was the only son of God, most of our founding fathers were what we today would call Gnostic Christians.
To put it simply, they didn't have much use for organized religion and saw most churches for what there were, much like what they still are today controlling and oppressing forces that are more about making people bend to the will of church elders more than worshiping god's glory and saving your soul. Although they held a belief in God, they believed that God had far bigger concerns to worry with that the affairs of us lowly mortals. Most of our founding fathers, when you get down to the brass tacks of it, would have been thrown out of and excommunicated from churches of the day and probably shunned by the church elders.
These men also considered themselves enlightened freethinkers an as such held personal liberties and freedom in high regard as made evident by the liberties and freedoms they chose to give us in the US Constitution.
"The Constitution only grants rights to Christians"
This little gem is the brainchild of Bryan Fisher, spokesman for the American Family Association and supporter of candidates like Governor Rick Parry of Texas and Senator Rick (don't google my name) Santorum of Pennsylvania. Here is a quote from him were he explains this little historic non-fact he's trying to pass off as fact.
"Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to be a presumption of religious liberty for non-Christian religious traditions in America, the Founders were not writing a suicide pact when they wrote the First Amendment.
Our government has no obligation to allow a treasonous ideology to receive special protections in America, but this is exactly what the Democrats are trying to do right now with Islam.
From a constitutional point of view, Muslims have no First Amendment right to build mosques in America. They have that privilege at the moment, but it is a privilege that can be revoked if, as is in fact the case, Islam is a totalitarian ideology dedicated to the destruction of the United States. The Constitution, it bears repeating, is not a suicide pact. For Muslims, patriotism is not the last refuge of a scoundrel, but the First Amendment is."
(Pardon me while I make like the wind running from my keyboard to my toilet as just reading this crap makes me wretch. Now that I'm back from my barf break, please allow me to continue.)
Now see, here is the problem with this; our founding fathers as enlightened freethinkers, were educated men and had seen what had happened in other countries that were pretty much governed by the church (much in the way that the Christian Right of today is attempting a wholesale, aggressive take over of our government). They didn't not want this to happen in this country so in 1791 they ratified the 1'st amendment establishing a "wall of separation between church and state".If the US Federal Government was built on legal documents such as the Deceleration of Independence and the US Constitution, you could argue that Thomas Jefferson was one of the head Architects on the job. If you were to do a google search for "Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Religious Freedom" you'll find some pretty useful insights into the way of thinking of our founding fathers at least were religious freedom is involved. I could probably find quotes on "Freedom of Religion" from all of the founding fathers but, for the sake of time, space and my sanity, I only looked for a few key quotes from one of the most pivotal of the founding fathers.
History shows that our founding fathers wanted to establish for there newly founded nation a free and civil government for the people of America. With that in mind, I would like to quote to you a line from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Alexander von Humboldt on December 6, 1813. "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.".
Now dose that sound like words of some one who belongs to a group that wishes to give rights, protections and liberties to members of one religion and not to another? Wouldn't make for much of a "Free Civil Government" now would it?
Another little gem from Mr. Jefferson comes from a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury CT regarding the 1'st amendment on January 1, 1802. "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that 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.". Now, how would you interrupt this one? Seems quite clear to me that he's saying "We ratified the first amendment and built a wall of separation between church and state because quite simply, what god you worship, how you worship and your religious preference is none of the government's damn business".
And the Thomas Jefferson quote that put the final nail in the coffin of all this "The Constitution only grants rights to Christians" nonsense is from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Thomas Cooper on February 10, 1814 needs no reflection on what was meant nor is left open for any interpretation. "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.". So there you have it from the pen of Thomas Jefferson himself.
In case quoting Jefferson wasn't enough, ponder this fact for a moment, in the constitution, there is but one reference to religion (the first part of the first amendment granting freedom of religion), no mention of God and no mention of Christianity. Seeing as the men who wrote this document were pretty thorough in drafting this document, if the rights, protections, liberties and freedoms granted to the citizens were to be granted only to Christians, don't you think it would say so?
"America was founded by people escaping religious persecution"
This is a line used by groups such as The American Family Association and the ilk who use the tenants of there church to continue to persecute members of the GLBT community who seek to achieve marriage equality.
Now, lets take a look at what persecution is shall we? Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of one group by another group.
While it is true that the first settlers to the "New World" set forth on this continent to avoid "religious persecution", the founding fathers who established the government of the United States Of America that has lasted all these many years fought the British crown for freedom from tyranny that had little if anything to do with religious persecution. Our founding fathers were fighting against oppressive laws such unfair taxes, taxation without representation, being made to provide food and living quarters for British soldiers etc etc etc. So you see, the escape of religious persecution is not as big a factor in the founding of America as these people are making it out to be.
Whats more is that using the "religious persecution" argument to fight against Civil Unions or Same Sex Marriage doesn't hold much water. There claim is that by the government to allow Civil Unions or Same Sex Marriages would be an infringement on there religious liberty and would force them to except a union or marriage that is against the tennents of there church. What they don't expect us to realize is that this is the biggest shovel full of bullshit there dumping on our heads.
You see, in America, if you are a man seeking to marry a woman, the government allows any man to wed any woman and with a few restrictions excepts it. Meanwhile, many Christian faiths will not except or preform the marriage of a member of there faith to a member of another faith with out the non-member converting. Take Mormonism for example; If I am a Mormon man seeking to wed a Catholic woman and she refuses to convert to Mormonism, the Mormon church forbids the marriage, would refuse to preform the ceremony and would excommunicate me from the church if I went through with the wedding and all this is allowed by the federal government.You see, Uncle Sam could care less whether a church will allow a member to marry a non -member or what churches excepts what marriages. Members of the GLBT community seek only recognition of there unions from the government so that they may receive the same rights, privileges and protections as heterosexual couples.
While we are on the subject of persecution, when you look at what the word means and the treatment that members of the GLBT community receives at the hands of the Christian Right, let me ask you this, who is persecuting whom?
Now that I've given you, my dear reader enough information and historic fact to ruminate over, I think I'll go and enjoy the rest of my evening.
This has been The Rainbow Patriot, signing off for now.
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