As with the last piece, this one is an intermingling of religion and politics. But hell, we are in a period in our history where the fundamental Christian communities are desperately trying to mix politics and religion, so this is probably somewhat appropriate. And this one kind of feeds off of the last.
A current topic of discussion among many tea party proponents is the idea that the United State of America is in fact a Christian nation, and this was actually the intention of our Founding Fathers when they were developing the principles which govern this country to this day. While Christianity was the majority interest religion of the period, our Founding Fathers were not interested in creating a theocracy in the United States. The only mention of God in The Declaration of Independence is qualified as “Nature’s God”, even man’s inalienable rights are granted by his Creator. Even when it was requested that Jesus Christ be identified as “Nature’s God” and the Creator, that request was rejected. And, after we won our independence from England, these men did not adopt the Bible as foundation for their new nation, they wrote an independent document, The United States Constitution, describing how this government was going to work. Again, not even a mention of God or religion in the original un-amended Constitution.
Even when one of the first items of business after adopting the Constitution was to create the first 10 amendments, also called the Bill of Rights, there is only one reference to religion:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
These first 10 amendments were proposed as a package on September 25, 1789, and ratified all at once with Virginia’s acceptance on December 15, 1791
The very first amendment of this Bill of Rights clearly defines the intention of the writers that The United State of America was not only, not intended to be a theocratic country, but also that it would not become one at some later date. Unless, of course, someone can now convince 38 States that it would be a good idea to rescind or modify the First Amendment. Interestingly, that very same 1st Amendment gives you the right to pretty much say anything you want on the subject recognizes no responsibility in the exercise thereof, but, it also provides me the right to point out the truth, no matter how simple and obvious it may be… So… To all the people of America, who believe the United States is a Christian nation, and the politicians who pander and lie to them for their votes, guess again, you’re wrong, you’ve always been wrong.
As I pointed out earlier, if you believe you can get an amendment out of Congress and ratified by 38 states that changes the 1st Amendment, you should go for it. But be warned, the last amendment to be ratified, took over to 200 years to achieve ratifications, and the amendment before that was proposed and ratified 40 years ago, with several hundred proposals never making it out of committee. A change as radical as establishing the USA as a Christian nation is going to be very difficult to pass, if not impossible. This is now, and always has been a secular nation, with many belief systems, and has led to a world were theocratic nations are becoming more and more scarce.
Your comments or questions are always welcome.
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