A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation
By JON MEACHAM
Published: October 7, 2007
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/opinion/07meacham.html)
"Thomas Jefferson said that his bill for religious liberty in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." When George Washington was inaugurated in New York in April 1789, Gershom Seixas, the hazan of Shearith Israel, was listed among the city's clergymen (there were 14 in New York at the time) — a sign of acceptance and respect. The next year, Washington wrote the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., saying, "happily the government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."
Andrew Jackson resisted bids in the 1820s to form a "Christian party in politics." Abraham Lincoln buried a proposed "Christian amendment" to the Constitution to declare the nation's fealty to Jesus. Theodore Roosevelt defended William Howard Taft, a Unitarian, from religious attacks by supporters of William Jennings Bryan."
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Hear, hear...
Karen
Tell my congressman. He will not vote for ENDA because he said, he is for strong family values. Is that a code word for a Christian Nation?
Quote from: lisagurl on October 09, 2007, 02:46:40 PM
Tell my congressman. He will not vote for ENDA because he said, he is for strong family values. Is that a code word for a Christian Nation?
Yes.
One of the buffoons in my state who could not be convinced to vote for same sex marriage is a 'family values' guy. Isn't the point of getting married; to form a family? To bad for him, the good guys won.
I thought a Christian nation was one where every citizen is named "Christian".
Are these stickers a kind of recognition code for family-values-oriented people?
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.decaljunky.com%2Fcart%2Fstickfamilynewdadmomgirgirlwt.jpg&hash=7210aa4a9987f575532f0831f857e2f317f74088)
I'm still waiting for the equivalent of the DARWIN-fish to show up in this arena. Actually, I have seen the first salvo in this 'war'. A fullsize king-cab pick-em-up with a sticker consisting of two short-haired skirt-wearing adult women and three dogs...
What would the appropriate stick figures be for a traditional lesbian or gay family? Or a trans family?
Karen
Christians are subtle and rare - like patriots. ;)
-Celia