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  • From: Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Marriage and religion
  • Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 16:47:12 -0500

Shea Tisdale wrote:
Just some questions and thoughts on this. Your statement seems awfully
broad. Is it equally appalling to you that the country was founded under
the Christian belief that all men are created equal with Creator endowed
rights?

I think that you are going to far here to say that the Founders implied a Christian god. Jefferson and others were Deists (Unitarians), who did not specifically believe in the Christian Trinity. The whole ideology of "inalienable rights" arose from the Enlightenment which was in part a reaction to the religous wars that accompanied the Christian Reformation. The notion that the world unfolded according to Christian law was an assumption that many of these leaders actively questioned. In the context of the Declaration, the term "Creator" is quite neutral as to faith or dogma. They didn't say "endowed by their Lord and Savior", they said "endowed by their Creator". They invoke "the Laws of Nature and . . . Nature's God", not the God of Abraham.

I'm probably really weird here, but I believe that anyone who enters into
the United States or our territories should have the protection of our
Constitution. Otherwise, to me, it seems hollow to say that we believe X
and Y.except for you visitors.

I'm with you fully here. What kind of people are we when we declare certain "inalienable rights" to be the law of the land in our Constitution and then deny those same rights to visitors to our nation? To tell other nations that our democracy is superior and then refuse to give their citizens the rights we give ourselves is hypocrisy.

TaB




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