TRUTH ABOUT FOUNDING FATHERS
Far too many Americans think the group of early leaders in the founding of the United States of America were devout Christians. And the same Americans who believe this place all kinds of denominational or specific Christian interpretations on these guys. While they each held to the various flavors of religion, many were very bigoted and judgmental of others as they are today. It is impossible to make statements about their all being Christians and coming anything close to the truth. At best, regarding religion, many were Deists. Some were atheists. Some were Quakers. And just as today, the silly list of beliefs goes on. Here are some quotes from the early American leaders; judge for yourself...
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith." -Thomas Jefferson
"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion." -John Adams
"The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian religion." -Thomas Paine
"...this loathsome combination of Church and State." -Thomas Jefferson
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." -Thomas Paine
Religious mumbo jumbo of every so-called Faith is loaded with hypocrisy and often with violence against others, even in their own camp. Think of the Hundred Years War, think of the Inquisition, think of the horribly violent and bigoted Crusades, think of the Holocaust, think of how American Indians were annihilated, think of our treatment of gays, think of clergy rape of youngsters, think how long we held people in slavery, think of how we denied women their rights, think of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, think of lynchings, think of the Ku Klux Klan and McCarthyism and the John Birch Society, think of the U.S. invading innocent sovereign nations, think of what we stole from Mexico, think of our denying health care to poor and sick people, think of the U.S. torturing prisoners, ......for goodness sake, THINK!
Why is it so difficult to have us, as a nation, act as though we truly followed the peace-loving Jesus of Nazareth? He taught us about society's outsiders, the prostitute, the disabled, the Good Samaritan. Why then is it so damned difficult for us to help others? Why has greed overtaken our values? Where in the world are our values?
"There is a destiny that makes us brothers, none goes his way alone./ All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own." -Edwin Markham
"But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother must stand his trial; anyone who contemptously calls his brother a fool must face the supreme court; and anyone who looks down on his brother as a lost soul is himself heading straight for the fire of destruction." -as quoted of Jesus in the 5th chapter of Matthew, scholar J.B. Phillips translation
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