As pointed out by John, over at A Lie A Day, Ronald Reagan’s old campaign meister is back on the campaign trail, this time shilling for Mike Huckabee, the GOP’s latest Savior, now that Fred is Dead. On CNN’s Lou Dobbs show, Ed is parroting one of the religious right’s most fanciful fables: "that 26 of the people that signed the U.S. Constitution were ministers."
Maybe Ed could steamroll Reagan to victory, but he’s going to have to do better if he wants to repeat that feat for Huckabee. According to the National Archives, most of the signers of the Constitution were lawyers (oh, the horror!). There was one lay preacher, one former missionary, quite a few rich plantation owners, and one genuinely ordained minister.
You can check it out yourself at the National Archives. All of the signers biographies are there, except for the Secretary, William Jackson. But, he’s on Wikipedia, and all the links are below.
Washington, George, VA
Franklin, Benjamin, PA
Madison, James, VA
Hamilton, Alexander, NY
Morris, Gouverneur, PA
Morris, Robert, PA
Wilson, James, PA
Pinckney, Chas. Cotesworth, SC
Pinckney, Chas, SC
Rutledge, John, SC
Butler, Pierce, SC
Sherman, Roger, CT
Johnson, William Samuel, CT
McHenry, James, MD
Read, George, DE
Bassett, Richard, DE
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, NC
Blount, William, NC
Williamson, Hugh, NC
Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas, MD
King, Rufus, MA
Gorham, Nathaniel, MA
Dayton, Jonathan, NJ
Carroll, Daniel, MD
Few, William, GA
Baldwin, Abraham, GA
Langdon, John, NH
Gilman, Nicholas, NH
Livingston, William, NJ
Paterson, William, NJ
Mifflin, Thomas, PA
Clymer, George, PA
FitzSimons, Thomas, PA
Ingersoll, Jared, PA
Bedford, Gunning, Jr., DE
Brearley, David, NJ
Dickinson, John, DE
Blair, John, VA
Broom, Jacob, DE
Jackson, William, Secretary
The plain truth is that the United States of America never was a "Christian nation," it was a product of the Enlightenment. The sooner Christians understand that, the freer we will be to worship God in the way that we see understand God, under the protection of a Constitution that establishes no religion, but protects them all. The longer we hold on to fables like this one, the longer we stay shackled in a medieval and dangerous world view.
2 comments:
Indeed. Of the primary founding fathers, few seem to have been active Christians, and I know of none who were nutjobs like we have now.
I cannot believe that God would sanction any enterprise that relies on deception to further His cause.
Consider:
God is not mentioned in the Constitution. Anywhere.
When George Washington died an agonizing and lingering death, he summoned no clergy to his bedside. In 1790, he wrote Jews in Rhode Island telling them that they would be citizens in good standing in the new country, and stating:
"It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
James Madison introduced a bill in the Virginia Legislature called the Statute for Religious Freedom. He acknowledged God, but said the state should favor no set of religious beliefs. He also opposed legislation that would allowed the state to tax on behalf of churches. (He probably would have had a fit over the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.)
Thomas Jefferson redacted all the miracles from the Bible. He created the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state." He also helped Madison draft the Declaration of Religious Freedom.
Benjamin Franklin was a well-known deist.
John Adams, and John Quincy Adams were Unitarians, which many modern Christians don't consider a legitimate religion at all. He signed a treaty in 1797 with Tripoli, which was raiding American shipping, that stated:
"As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."
With a little research, I could probably find more examples.
Doug Nurse
“This campaign is not just about people who have religious fervor,” Huckabee said as he made the rounds of morning talk shows this morning (Friday). Unfortunately, it is largely about people who have religious fervor. A country governed by religious zealots is disastrous.
If theocracy in Iran and the dominance of religion in the governments of other states is to be abhorred, American voters should also guard against the dangerous corruption of democracy by religion. America’s seeming insistence on Christian leadership not only threatens the constitutional separation of church and state but smacks of theocracy.
The current field of Republican party presidential candidates woos voters in primary contests based largely on who is the most Christian, rather than who will best get the U.S. out of Iraq with honor, who will best repair damage to the country’s broken economy and domestic infrastructure and who will best restore its foreign relationships. One of the candidates has to assure voters that his religion, Mormonism, is Christian.
On the Democratic side, the presidential candidates actively present their Christian bona fides to voters. One of the candidates, whose name sounds Middle Eastern and who spent part of his childhood in an Islamic country, has to convince voters that he is not a Muslim but is a Christian.
The U.S. is straying from the wise counsel of its founding fathers. Too many voters demand that politicians be, or at least profess to be, Christians. Would a majority of voters not also elect men and women to office who are, or who profess to be, atheists, agnostics or deists? Would the U.S. not elect Thomas Jefferson to office today?
Americans seem to believe that the more Christian their president, senators and representatives, the more divinely inspired their governance will be. When the policy directions and the missteps of the current Christian-based administration are considered, even the most ardent Christian would not admit to seeing the hand of Jesus or inspiration by the Holy Trinity.
Presidents and politicians may pray for divine inspiration, intervention and special blessing, but voters shouldn’t insist that they do so. Too much time spent in prayer might take time away from the rational consideration of the issues that confront the nation.
When voting for a change in course of the ship of state, the electorate should minimize, if not eliminate from its calculations, the importance of a politician’s religion.
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