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View Full Version : Was America founded as secular?


PRB
08-14-2012, 21:16
http://stg.do/Iwpc

your thoughts?

Richard
08-14-2012, 23:16
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm036.html

The works of art throughout the Capitol Campus reflect the development of the United States and the Congress. They range from bronze and marble statues to oil portraits and frescoed murals. Their subjects include prominent Americans, important moments in history, and allegorical representations of the nation's ideals.

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/index.cfm

It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House--a practice that continued until after the Civil War--were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.
Jefferson's actions may seem surprising because his attitude toward the relation between religion and government is usually thought to have been embodied in his recommendation that there exist "a wall of separation between church and state." In that statement, Jefferson was apparently declaring his opposition, as Madison had done in introducing the Bill of Rights, to a "national" religion. In attending church services on public property, Jefferson and Madison consciously and deliberately were offering symbolic support to religion as a prop for republican government.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html

The problem with using the provision as evidence that Jefferson was trying to promote Christianity to the Indians is that the Kaskaskia were already Catholic, and had been for some time. Article 3 of the treaty even begins by stating that “the greater part of the said tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic Church.” The support of a priest and help building a church were provisions that the Kaskaskia asked for, not things the government recommended or pushed on them.

http://www.liarsforjesus.com/downloads/LFJ_71_79.pdf

And as far as the Founding Fathers and their degrees go:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fathers.html

David Barton is also well known for his Beck U foibles as a Chrisitan Right 'revisionist historian' of note producing books and videos trafficking in “embarrassing factual errors, suspiciously selective quotes, and highly misleading claims.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/11/christian-right-historian-david-barton-in-freefall-over-jefferson-lies.html

Guess it's all how you look at it - and so it goes...

Richard :munchin

PRB
08-15-2012, 09:23
;)
are those claims valid tho? The message in the vid?

Richard
08-15-2012, 09:44
;)
are those claims valid tho? The message in the vid?

Purposefully selectively interpretative and contextually misleading.

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin