Secular Country? Obama Sides With Jefferson, Madison, Paine

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/08-12

Secular Country? Obama Sides With Jefferson, Madison, Paine

by John Nichols


President Obama made one of the most important statements of his young presidency when he said in Turkey that the United States is not "a Christian nation."

Rob Boston was right when he noted on the Americans United for Separation of Church and State site, Obama's secular declaration "reflects the best of Jefferson's thinking."

snip//

Constitutional rewritemen Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly disagree, as does noted historian and Biblical scholar Chuck Norris, who argues that, "the idea that Judeo-Christian ideas and practices must be kept separate from government would have struck our Founders as ridiculous..."

As difficult as it may be counter with that sort of "reasoning," it probably makes sense to turn, once more, to Mr. Jefferson.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions," the third president wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

Was Jefferson an outlier?

Well, James Madison, the essential arbiter on matters constitutional, explained that: "The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion."

And the common sense of the most visionary of the founders, Tom Paine, led him to observe that: "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

[damntexdem]

1. And John Adams stated similar things, and ovesaw a treaty with Tripoli so stating.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" ... Fully endorsed by Adams and ratified by the U.S. Senate.

[mkultra]

6. unanimously ratified

don't forget that.

[JoePhilly]

2. Just use the "strict-constructionist" argument.

1) The founders did not mention Christianity or Jesus explicitly in the Constitution.

2) The US has no "official" religion.

Hence ... we are not a "Christian nation".

Pretty simple.

[Arugula Latte]

3. Sidenote: I think Obama is too intelligent to truly buy into religion.

He's got to have a healthy streak of skepticism, if not downright disbelief, in ancient Hebrew mythology.

[Cha]

4. Rec'd~ For Prez Obama

speaking the facts.

[firedupdem]

5. Rec'd. n/t

[Frank Booth]

7. That's all well and good, but I'd be willing to bet good money that

James Madison's roundhouse kick had nowhere near the power of Chuck Norris's.

[CTLawGuy]

8. kick

NT

[jonnyblitz]

9. well isn't that precious. I guess this secular nation stuff doesn't

apply to gay marriage in Obama's eyes since he chooses to use his christianity as his excuse to be against it. what a tool.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. So would Jefferson have run an office of Faith Based Projects?

And would he have used religion as a device of his own agenda? How utterly bogus of Obama to shove his dogma at us all through his campaign, and onward, and then turn around and deny to the world what he does at home.
He tells the Muslims we are not Christian, and tells Americans we have to follow Christian dogma or live under seperate rules. Pay extra taxes, live without many rights.
He speaks out of both sides of his mouth.