If American was “founded on Christian religion”...
why did it take almost 100 years (1861) to put “In God We Trust” on our coins?
As the letters of Jefferson and many other Founders reveal, they sought to avoid Europe’s “bloody history of religious wars”. That’s why they forbade any kind of “religious test” in the Constitution for anyone seeking Government positions and why they gave us the “Disestablishment Clause” in the First Amendment to, as Jefferson said, separate Church and State.
But the religious fervor that perennially erupts in murderous hatred of the "other" was too strong and gave us the Civil War, one of the bloodiest in history. Both sides quoted the Bible to support their “cause” (whether “Freedom” or “Slavery). What a waste of blood and treasure.
Lesson: Religion is dangerous; handle with care.
= new reply since forum marked as read
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: March 12, 2010
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Mavis B. Knight, a Democrat from Dallas, introduced an amendment requiring that students study the reasons “the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others.”
It was defeated on a party-line vote.
After the vote, Ms. Knight said, “The social conservatives have perverted accurate history to fulfill their own agenda.”
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Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)
- More at link -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html
