Mike spends most of his time waxing about how Lowell has supposedly been slippery with words, before actually getting to his own slippery example. His main one is rather muddled at best and as it turns, out entirely wrong. Let's break it up into three (a,b,c):

MIKE: "it would be more correct and truthful to say that:
a) our country’s founders chose freedom of religion (freedom to choose between a variety of Christian sects)

b) over the establishment of any particular sect of the Christian religion as the national religion -

c) not over the establishment of Christianity as our nation’s religion.">>

"A" is false. Citizens are not required to choose "between a variety of Christian sects." A person's religion, or non-religion, is none of the governments business. As Jefferson put it:

"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." —Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.

"B" is false. The establishment clause extends beyond the government not establishing a particular Christian sect. It stops it from endorsing/supporting/establishing *any* religion and any sect of any religion. Again Jefferson gives us an insight into the founders opinion on this:

"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."
[Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom"]

"C" is entirely false. The founders were not at all interested in establishing Christianity as a national religion. See rule number one, 1st Amendment.

MIKE: "people ran to America to escape from the rule of the state-supported Anglican church, not from religion, and most assuredly not from Christianity.">>

They ran from state supported religion, any of them and all of them, and that most assuredly includes your Christianity and all of its 30,000 variations.

D.
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"Having observed the hell on earth that was created by the Christian state churches of Europe during the time of the religious wars, the Inquisition and the witch mania, the founders of the US determined that the absolute morality of the differing versions of Christianity leads only to strife, murder, and hatred, so they did their best to make sure that state churches could not be established here.” --Greg Erwin

Posted by: fayfreethinker

February 11, 2012 at 3:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )