The “Christian Nation” Lie
When I first invited Ed Firmage (website, bio) to write for OneUtah, I asked him to write about this new canard of the religious right. Professor (Emeritus) Firmage is a preeminent Constitutional Scholar and a kind of Born again Mormon turned devout Christian.
Until Dubbya, I had never heard this new idea that the Separation clause actually meant the opposite of what it said, and that the Founding Fathers were all Christians.
Ed confirmed for me, this was a novel and recent interpretation, but has never given it any shrift, I imagine because as one who could make or break law students based upon their academic understanding of the Constitution, the very idea is so utterly vacant of merit, it doesn’t deserve his attention.
Since then, however, the talking points (shall make no laws = shall not prohibit full gov’t endorsement) are being repeated by not only semi-illiterate bible thumping high school dropouts, but also by educated pundits via the MSM.
So, this morning, I stumbled upon this most excellent and concise review of THE FACTS appropriately entitled “Romney’s Founders.”
Mitt Romney’s recent reflections on the role of religion in American politics implicitly called to mind a disturbingly distorted version of history that has become part of the conventional wisdom of American politics in recent years.
That version of history suggests that the Founders intended to create a “Christian Nation,” and that we have unfortunately drifted away from that vision of the United States. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
It is worth noting that the Declaration of Independence does not invoke Jesus, or Christ, or Our Father, or the Almighty, but the “Laws of Nature,” “Nature’s God,” the “Supreme Judge,” and “Divine Providence,” all phrases that belong to the tradition of deism. The Declaration of Independence is not a Puritan or Calvinist or Methodist or Baptist or Protestant or Catholic or Christian document, but a document of the Enlightenment. It is a statement that deeply and intentionally invokes the language of American deism. It is a document of its own time, and it speaks eloquently about what Americans of that time believed.
The Constitution goes even further. It does not invoke the deity at all…
As a life long student of American history and politics, I can think of nothing more un-American, more un-patriotic, than the FREEKING ignorant LIE that the Founders intended a Christian Nation.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I found this informative comment on the subject.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:46 am
You know, even at the Christian university of BYU I was taught that the founding fathers, especially Benjamin Franklin, were committed students of the Enlightenment and deism. But the facts don’t matter, because the Right won’t educate themselves with facts–facts are secular, a sort of lesser knowledge. The Spirit moves them to believe whatever they want to believe, including that the Christian-backed, moralistic national leaders will make this a more righteous nation.
Frightening that this method of deduction informs and controls such powerful elements of our federal politicking…
December 11th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Speaking of lies could we please move this forum away from the discussion of ridiculous religious kooks and their sonambulistic doctrines?
Let’s get back to why algore the inventor of the internet, and high priest of the human induced global warming cult, is either a crazed acolyte, or a plain old liar.
here are the SCIENTISTS that disagree.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
PS: No “witches” were ever burned by the puritans in the North American continent.
The facts: America never burned witches. This was done in Europe. During The Salem trials, 19 “witches” were hung, 2 died in jail, and 1 was pressed to death under heavy stones. Any others were done in by the above means, or ducked(waterboarded?) to death.
“The Puritans came here to establish a little theologically pure commune, somewhere that they could burn the witches in peace”.
Nice source Cliff.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
The HuffPo article is very good. The ring of truth makes a sweet sound. It also makes sense.
I think Jerry Falwell used the term “Christian Nation” as many times as Bob Dole said “Tax and Spend Liberals.” That was no small amount. I just wish I had a dime for every time they did. We’ll never know whether the old, dead bastard even believed it himself, or cared. The damage it has done will be with us for decades at least.
You can’t build a nation of reason from faith any more then you can build a space shuttle out of straw and bricks.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
The fact may be wrong but I like this sentence a lot. I think it says quite a bit about America past and present.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
glenn:
I’m uncomfortable with Al Gores invocation of God in his Nobel prize speech, but I just don’t feel the same sense of wickedness you do. What in the world did Gore do that ticks you off so much? You certainly would rather have him as president, wouldn’t you?
December 11th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
J. D’Avignon and glenn:
Maybe burning witches just stunk the place up too much, so they tweaked the ritual a little.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Don’t really think there would be a dimes worth of difference frankly Larry, these oiligarchs (and al is from oil money) lib or con, are just flip sides of the same coin.
Their job is to confuse the populace, most buy in to one side or the other, hook, line, and sinker.
As for the dislike, it’s simple, same reason I don’t like bush, can’t abide a liar of any stripe.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I thought Gore’s father and senator was a tobacco farmer.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:03 am
What they did when they got here does not alter the reason they came.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I guess occidental doesn’t ring a bell?
the jokes on you.
Tobacco, oil investments, kinda goes hand in hand, huh Larry?
December 12th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Cliff as a person obsessed with “credentials” and “sources”, that is a neat dodge.
Fact is most of the puritans and early settlers starved do death…, with Jamestown earlier relating some awesome cannibalism, digging up the dead and eatin ‘em, one guy killing with wife as she lay in his arms, and eating her bones clean, except for her head. Good stuff.
They, the puritans, came because the people of England tired of them and kicked them out, explains volumes of subsequent american history. Mormons must have the same onus, minus the killing of witches, and were satisfied with massacring Indians and other christian settlers.
The Indians must have been pretty terrified of the spectres Europeans were. The Indians were terrified of other Indians too, the Algonquins naming Mohawks, “eaters of human flesh”, after their practises. Yep cannibalism in the New World, with God watching, following Jesus’ admonition to be in this Earth not of it..the puritans said sure, but not before some dinner.
Sidenote: John Stark was adopted into an Abenaki tribe, after being kidnapped by them, and brought to Quebec. As was custom, he was made to run a gauntlet of warriors that would beat the runner with sticks. John, seeing his fate, apparently cold cocked the first warrior in line, took his stick and proceeded to beat all men in his path with the stolen stick. The event was canceled, and Stark made an immediate member of the tribe. He abstained from participation in the ethnic/racial cleansing for rest of his days, though was not averse to killing an Indian in battle.