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And now to Fix our Currency!
As you've no doubt heard by now, the monument to the ten commandments has been removed.
I'm going to have a smile on my face all day long. Every once in a while, not often, but upon occassion, I still have hope for this country.
Just so the religious right doesn't confuse the issue anymore, let me just inform them of one thing: THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY!
Did you hear that? Our laws are not founded on the ten commandments. That whole savior/ressurection/salvation story? It ain't new. As a matter of fact, it's at least the third religion to use the whole line of bullshit. You're not even fucking original.
Think we're a christian nation? I point you to the treaty with the nation of Tripoli. What treaty you ask? In 1797 America made a treaty with Tripoli, declaring that "the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." This reassurance to Islam was written under Washington's presidency, and approved by the Senate under John Adams.
Our founding fathers were deists, not christians. The first colony of English-speaking Europeans was Jamestown, settled in 1609 for trade, not religious freedom. Fewer than half of the 102 Mayflower passengers in 1620 were "Pilgrims" seeking religious freedom. The secular United States of America was formed more than a century and a half later. If tradition requires us to return to the views of a few early settlers, why not adopt the polytheistic and natural beliefs of the Native Americans, the true founders of the continent at least 12,000 years earlier?
It would do most of you good to know this particular law, just for the record:
The Supreme Court has forged a three-part "Lemon test" (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971) to determine if a law is permissible under the First-Amendment religion clauses.
1.A law must have a secular purpose.
2.It must have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion.
3.It must avoid excessive entanglement of church and state.
As to the pledge of allegience? The words, "under God," did not appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, when Congress, under McCarthyism, inserted them. Likewise, "In God We Trust" was absent from paper currency before 1956. It appeared on some coins earlier, as did other sundry phrases, such as "Mind Your Business." The original U.S. motto, chosen by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, is E Pluribus Unum ("Of Many, One"), celebrating plurality, not theocracy.
Now, you've been informed. Stop acting like morons.
Joseph Haines, signing off from The Edge of The Abyss.
I'm going to have a smile on my face all day long. Every once in a while, not often, but upon occassion, I still have hope for this country.
Just so the religious right doesn't confuse the issue anymore, let me just inform them of one thing: THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY!
Did you hear that? Our laws are not founded on the ten commandments. That whole savior/ressurection/salvation story? It ain't new. As a matter of fact, it's at least the third religion to use the whole line of bullshit. You're not even fucking original.
Think we're a christian nation? I point you to the treaty with the nation of Tripoli. What treaty you ask? In 1797 America made a treaty with Tripoli, declaring that "the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." This reassurance to Islam was written under Washington's presidency, and approved by the Senate under John Adams.
Our founding fathers were deists, not christians. The first colony of English-speaking Europeans was Jamestown, settled in 1609 for trade, not religious freedom. Fewer than half of the 102 Mayflower passengers in 1620 were "Pilgrims" seeking religious freedom. The secular United States of America was formed more than a century and a half later. If tradition requires us to return to the views of a few early settlers, why not adopt the polytheistic and natural beliefs of the Native Americans, the true founders of the continent at least 12,000 years earlier?
It would do most of you good to know this particular law, just for the record:
The Supreme Court has forged a three-part "Lemon test" (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971) to determine if a law is permissible under the First-Amendment religion clauses.
1.A law must have a secular purpose.
2.It must have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion.
3.It must avoid excessive entanglement of church and state.
As to the pledge of allegience? The words, "under God," did not appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, when Congress, under McCarthyism, inserted them. Likewise, "In God We Trust" was absent from paper currency before 1956. It appeared on some coins earlier, as did other sundry phrases, such as "Mind Your Business." The original U.S. motto, chosen by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, is E Pluribus Unum ("Of Many, One"), celebrating plurality, not theocracy.
Now, you've been informed. Stop acting like morons.
Joseph Haines, signing off from The Edge of The Abyss.
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