Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - RE: [internetworkers] Marriage and religion

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Shea Tisdale" <shea AT sheatisdale.com>
  • To: "'Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/'" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [internetworkers] Marriage and religion
  • Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 18:12:39 -0500

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
> >
> >> The founding fathers had a variety of personal beliefs, including
> >> Christian, but many of the quotes thrown around to support the idea of
> >> a Christian nation are, ahem, inaccurate:
>
> > I'm simply arguing that to say our government was founded devoid of
> > Christian principles is the equivalent of saying the world is flat.
>
> What you have to do here is separate the concept of the individual from
> that of the government, and the government was specifically designed to
> be separate from religion. The only possible reason to go on about the
> religious beliefs of the early American figures is to justify current
> political movement's attempts to force their religious beliefs onto the
> rest of the population.

You are correct Michael in saying we have to separate the concept of the
individual from that of the government. However the argument is still
proper because what the founding fathers envisioned and even wrote about was
a one-way separation whereby the State would not be able to interfere with
religion, but where religion could play a role in the state through the
political process.

To say that anyone of a particular background, education or religious (or
deist or atheist) belief system is uninfluenced by that in their opinion and
in their politics is to deny reality.

The only reason to go on about it is to make sure that our understanding of
the past is correct. The start of this thread was: "I find it appalling
that a belief systems viewpoint (Christianity) is being applied by the
federal government, and I was raised catholic so it's not like I don't have
a faith in the same religion that some folks believe should be imposed on
everyone." To which my point is that many good things have come out of
Christian (and other) people applying their viewpoint to federal government.

Of course this does not preclude many bad things from happening either.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page