Saturday, July 09, 2011

Another Inconvenient Truth

A little-quoted writing from Thomas Jefferson that seems to have slipped beneath the notice of those who claim to speak for what the Founding Fathers intended, especially along the lines of religious freedom:

"Whereas the preamble [of Virginia's Act for Establishing Religious Freedom] declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the words `Jesus Christ,' so that it should read, `a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;' the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination."

(Lifted from Peter Rozovsky’s award-winning blog, Detectives Beyond Borders.)

So let’s knock off this “Christian nation” shit, okay?

1 comment:

Charlieopera said...

Oh, Christ, I was in a full 8 hour war today at SUFA (Stand up for Ayn Rand/America) with a founding fathers issue. Randers like to point to the "greatness of the FF" but conveniently ignore the slavery those great fellas ignored in their constitution drafting (to name one place they ignored it). A full 8 hours of back and forth ... Why did I engage?

Because I'm a fucking moron.