OMG! An article posted on FR on the pitfalls of mixing church and state.

[K8-EEE]

HOLY CRAP! It just really startles me to find something on there that's not totally batshit nuts and/or mean and angry.

Did one of you guys post this? Fess up!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2347877/posts

What would it mean if the United States were officially declared a “Christian Nation”? How would it affect you in your everyday life? Would you have increased opportunity to practice your faith more freely? Would the government use its power to make moral laws that line up with your Christian beliefs or would it favor the ‘Christian beliefs’ of your neighbors?

Our best example might come from a time when much of Europe was a “Christian Continent.” The Holy Roman Empire lasted from Emperor Otto’s coronation in 962 to 1806 when it was dissolved during the Napoleonic wars. For all intents and purposes it was considered the ultimate “Christian” political system.

The Empire was afraid what would happen if people began to compare the activities of its political and religious leaders with the Bible. There was tremendous power in the idea that a political leader could advance policies, not through debate, but by virtue that “God wants it this way, and if you disagree you are in opposition to God.” To put this in perspective, imagine that President Obama could win the healthcare debate by simply saying that “God wants it this way, and if you disagree you are in opposition to God.”

[Kerrytravelers]

1. That won't last long there.

I'm sure there are some freeper-members who don't want a theocracy, but in the end, they are fine compromising on this if they get something out of it for them. They just hold their noses and tolerate what they must in order to get that huge tax break or that next war.

[K8-EEE]

2. One thing I've noticed, the Freepers go all Sunni on Shia on each other

the second they REALLY start talking about religion, especially true when Mitt was running. They were all super tolerant of the "good conservative values" LDS but as soon as one of the LDS was in the position to be the nom their real feelings came out and it was like, 'I CAN'T VOTE FOR ANYBODY WHO DOESN'T BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION! MORMONISM IS A CULT!" and on and on.

The LDS would be all polite trying to explain how fab & holy their beliefs were and they would be like, "JESUS IS MY SAVIOR" and some redneck freep would shoot back something like, "yeah you got that funny underwear?"

To my sick mind....so entertaining.

[Adsos Letter]

3. Many fundamentalists, whose religious beliefs would be considered wacky

believe in religious liberty and church/state separation; they just don't make the noise other groups do. The SDA's religious liberty department, for one, and those who fund American's United, and other groups (AU is not necessarily fundy, but I know fundies who support it monetarily).

I wish these folks would make a higher public profile, to combat the assumption that all Christians want to assume civil power. The realization that it isn't true could help fight the assumptions of the theocrats, that government should be religious and not secular.

EDITED: to agree that that post probably won't last long "over there," but, hopefully, it will make 'em think... Religious liberty is one of the great blessings safeguarded by our Constitution; it really is to the benefit of all "believers", even if that belief is the choice to not believe in a god/creator/etc.

[tanyev]

4. Yeah, but nearly all the responders are disagreeing with the original post.