It's an election year again. I happen to live in Alaska where Sarah Palin is from and it makes for some lively local discussion. Palin, McCain and the Republican party are not exclusive in their praise of the actively religious voters; the Democrats too opened their convention with a prayer and invoked the aid of invisible friends in each of their speeches. Both parties also participated in the Saddleback Forum which examined the candidates morals and religious belief.
What are we to do? Is this a Christian Nation as some would argue or is this a free country? Should politicians even engage in such discussions?
There are those who feel that America was set up by Christians for Christians. Is there any evidence that this nation was founded on Christianity?
There are those who feel that this nation was set up as a secular experiment for Christians and Non-Christians alike, or that though most people were Christian at the time, the founders set up a secular nation in anticipation of a need for elbow room for other beliefs. Is there evidence for that point of view?
In October we anticipate having our first public meeting. The venue and time will be posted here as soon as that information is available. Until then... feel free to post your thoughts on this topic here.
-BCR
p.s. I have a definite opinion on this matter.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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2 comments:
This topic is a pretty easy one, I think. No, the country was not founded on the Christian religion, and more importantly, the laws and norms of the country do not depend in any way on the Christian religion. It has always been true that the U.S. is a country with a Christian majority, but it is also a country with millions of believers in other faiths, and nonbelievers in all faiths, a group that has been growing as fast or faster than any other religious group in recent years, but is underrepresented in government and our culture. There is evidence that several of the major "founding fathers" were religious skeptics, who were at least radically anti-clerical and certainly questioned traditional religious beliefs. I refer especially to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote/edited "The Jefferson Bible", which remove d supernatural dogma from the life of Jesus to focus on his moral teachings, Thomas Paine, author of the deist polemic "The Age of Reason", and Benjamin Franklin, who was also a deist who disbelieved in the divinity of Jesus.
But what about all of that "endowed by our creator" talk? Next thing you'll want "In God We Trust" off the money and the 10 commandments out of the courthouses. You're mean.:-)
-BCR
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