USA is A Christian Nationâ„¢! Right?
Here’s a shocker, most Americans have never read the Bill of Rights, if they had they wouldn’t assume the US is a “Christian Nationâ„¢” like so many of them do. Let me help all those people out who don’t know since it’s the first damn thing in there, here’s the first amendment of the Bill of Rights:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Most think founders wanted Christian USA
Most Americans believe the nation’s founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.
The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do.
Most respondents, 58%, say teachers in public schools should be allowed to lead prayers. That is an increase from 2005, when 52% supported teacher-led prayer in public schools.
More people, 43%, say public schools should be allowed to put on Nativity re-enactments with Christian music than in 2005, when 36% did.
Half say teachers should be allowed to use the Bible as a factual text in history class. That’s down from 56% in 2000. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, says the findings are particularly troubling during a week when the top diplomat in Iraq gave a report to Congress on progress toward achieving democracy there. “Americans are dying to create a secular democracy in Iraq, and simultaneously a growing number of people want to see a Christian state” here, he says.
Sep 12, 2007 @ 11:44:37
** Law is not heaven sent to a “xian nation” **
The Constitution is the foundation document for the U.S. — there’s no natural law; neither God nor religion play any role. There are no “law givers”; laws do not emanate from above.
The Constitution contains no reference to God. The word ‘God’ does not appear. (‘Jesus’, ‘Christ’, ‘Christianity’ don’t appear either.) The word ‘religion’ appears only once, in Amendment One.
It protects “freedom of conscience.” Initially the right of every man (not slave, not female, not propertyless) to freely choose how to conduct his life as a legal person.
One Civil War (1865), the vote for women (1920), one Civil Rights Movement (1965) — that’s the turbulent blood-soaked price paid so far for extending equality (reciprocity).
Amendment One also establishes freedom *from* religion. The U.S is a secular state from its inception. The U.S. is *not* one nation under some god.
It (she or he or some committee) doesn’t rule here, the people do. Not child molesting priests, nor fanatical tax-dodging televangelists, nor cabals of brain sick fundies seeking to overthrow the Republic.
God-talk disappears from justificatory language of 1776 (in the Declaration of Independence) and gives way to a view of 1786 (in the Constitution) that the people give themselves their own dignity and rights as citizens.
They enjoy or abuse their ‘freedom of conscience’ in matters of religion, speech, publications, public assembly, petitions to the elected representatives of the people, civil disobedience, and even armed revolution. Is this order on the edge of chaos? Yes.
Some conjectured divinity (or divinized leader) no longer needs to exist as a “holy lie” a la Plato for people to act in ways consonant with social order. The people are sovereign; we abide by the laws which we create for ourselves.
Let’s be clear here: The people are sovereign! Christ is not sovereign . . . God is not . . . They do not exist.
There are those who pretend to speak for the gods and who demand social control and political domination. They are christo-fascists, who most threaten our secular Republic.
bipolar2
copyright asserted 2007
Nov 26, 2007 @ 03:54:57
Actually, the word “lord” does appear once in the Constitution, ” year of our lord, 1787.” That’s it. It is true our forefathers were Christian men (like they had a choice) and based many of our initial laws partially on the Ten Commandments. But religious doctrine never was the only source.