While I hold a belief that Christians and Churches themselves determine the “Christian” portion of “Christian Nation”, it is also flatly untrue that “our founding fathers rested this nation on Christian principles.” If the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and their most influential writers (like Thomas Paine) were to be gathered together today in front of a panel of likes of Ashcroft, Falwell, Ralph Reed, and the like, they would be branded as the most liberal of the liberals.
The link below (found via Eric) cites several of the “founding fathers”, and outlines the feeling many of them had for the Christianity of Colonial America. Many of them expressed outright disdain. It seems that perhaps the Religious Right Leaders of today may well have even more reason to REBEL against the “founding fathers” than tho actually use a mythological assesment of their “Christian principles”.
the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli — initiated by George Washington and signed into law by John Adams — proclaims: “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.â€
I suspect that the same may be true for the present canon we have that we refer to as The Bible. The fact that a Catholic council (an “ecumenical council”) met and decided on what books should be the “official canon” would be held in deep skepticism by those in today’s Religious Right climate. Many of them hold both Catholics and Ecumenicism in contempt (especially the latter), and this “decision” on the Canon would not, in any way , shape, or form, be “acceptable” as a “measure” and as a “communal decision”. But that’s all ancient history, and the Religious Right has very little sense of history; in fact, they seem unable to disntinguish tradition and its mythologies from history, and thus, the Bible and the process of the canonization is never questioned. It is, as they say, “as God willed”. And yet, if that decision were up for a vote today, they would be blocking it and preventing it. What of “God’s will” then? The present Religious Right seems incapable of appreciating the very ecumenical and communal nature of the establishment of traditions of the faith.
hehe, did you get that from me? 😛
I read that article over a week ago, but didn’t post it until the opportunity presented itself in my latest post. I may just make a follow-up post emphasizing that passage 🙂
Peace!
Eric,
I always try to remain conscious of how I find stuff, and relay that to the blog…..but a lot of times I get to following links, and write a few things, and then forget to give credit for how I found it. I know you’re not upset or anythign with me, but I was reminded when you posted about it, and I realized I had just started ranting about it and made myself forget.
I know many of us bloggers realize how much of what we do is related to each other, and I am thankful for that, and for you as well. It’s a lot like the Church, where none of us can or should exist alone, or without a lot of “assumptions” and “attitudes” for which we can give credit to not only our own God-given intellectual abilities (part of which is doing something with the knowledge and experiencethat comes to us from living in community, for which we are always aware of our interdependence.
But, even though I know you weren’t expecting or intendingf to heap burning coals on my head, I did that to myself when I realized I didn’t do my usual (via x via Y) thing.
Dale, please, don’t feel bad at all! I was just curious. I don’t really care if you link back to me or not. Just sometimes, things are a bit spooky, because you and I read a lot of the same news and blog feeds, so sometimes we get the same information.
But other times, like, if you look at Vaughn’s latest post about the American Myth of Religious Freedom, then it just gets weird because he isn’t basing that post on mutual news/blog feeds, but just happens to be reading the same kinds of material I’ve been reading lately, like with the myths of the religious origins of America and stuff.
I was just trying to clarify if it was a spooky coincidence or not 😛
Keep blogging as you blog!
This is a great post, and a topic that needs to be hammered on considerably more.
I actually did a post on it myself about a month ago…
Another interesting fact regarding the Treaty of Tripoli was that it was ratified unanimously by the Senate.
I don’t mean to be a blog whore, but there’s also a couple of quotes from writings by Jefferson and Franklin in my post too, for any of you that are interested.
I love this site, I found you from checking my site referrals a couple weeks back… Keep up the great work!