Quote:
Originally Posted by Broadsword2004
Also, while I believe in religious freedom, I see nothing wrong with things like making English the official language and the Christian religion the base religion of the country (being that it was founded by Christian colonists, founded as a nation by Christian men, on basic Christian values, from an English-speaking country).
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As it is not to the heart of the topic, I won't address your first point, but as to the second, the Constitution of this great nation specifically prohibits the establishment of an "official" religion. To do so might seem innocent at first, but that is a very, very slippery slope. Also, I don't believe that the founding fathers were quite as Christian as one might think, especially when you consider quotes and passages such as:
Quote:
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies." -Benjamin Franklin
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church." -Thomas Paine
"Religions are all alike - founded upon fables and mythologies." -Thomas Jefferson
"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity." -John Adams
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." -James Madison
"I have never been a communicant." -George Washington
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I don't list these here to offend anyone, merely to encourage that critical thought be given to the widely held notion that the founders of our nation were devoted Christians.
I'll make no judgment on the actions of these students in Colorado beyond saying that if we are to have a Pledge of Allegiance, I wish it would be returned to its original state. I simply believe that freedom OF religion should also extend itself to freedom FROM religion for those who so choose.
To once again quote Thomas Jefferson, a man who like myself believed in limited government, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."