This is a Christian Nation

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ^ | Feb. 29, 1892

[Tailgunner Joe]

Wrong.

[general_re]

Tell it to Bill Rehnquist.

[Tailgunner Joe]

"The central support for the Court's ultimate conclusion that Congress did not intend the law to cover Christian ministers is its lengthy review of the "mass of organic utterances" establishing that "this is a Christian nation,"...

Not dicta. Central support.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Correcting leftist distortion of our laws is not judicial activism. It's justice.

[DannyTN]

"Credentials, interviews, elections, selections, job descriptions, whatever it takes to insure the electorate they will be getting the best bang for the buck."

An honest press would help. Know where we can get one???

[Eastbound]

"An honest press would help. Know where we can get one???"

The difficult we can do immediately. The impossible will have to wait until the ballot box breaks and we have to replace it with something sturdier. ;>

[ladyjane]

This thread has been most enlightening. What's not to understand? A bunch of Christians founded a country inhabited primarily by Christians. What's not Christian about it? It is amazing how Christianity irritates/scares some people. I'd expect some of these comments on an ACLU website but not at FR.

[general_re]

Central support.

So says Anthony Kennedy, in a concurring opinion that itself has no precedential value. Excuse me if I don't rush over to shake your hand.

Correcting leftist distortion of our laws is not judicial activism.

Tell it to Rehnquist, and ponder Mark 8:36 while you're at it...

[Tailgunner Joe]

Your remarks are cryptic. Would you care to elaborate on why you think Rehnquist is a judicial activist an what it has to do with this case? Thanks.

Perhaps you could also tell us why your legal opinion is of greater value than Justice Kennedy's and Chief Justice Rehnquist's.

[Tailgunner Joe]

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? - Mark 8:33-36

---

You may want a nation that serves only the things of men, but I'll take one that serves God, and if you tell me to "render unto Caesar", I must repond that I serve no king but King Jesus.

[megatherium]

And what does your quote have anything to do with the fact that this country was founded by Christians, so all religions could seek asylum here?

Can't argue with that! Most of the founders were Christian, or sympathetic to Christianity (Tom Paine the one notorious counterexample). And the fact that we are a refuge for all faiths is one of the great things about this country.

We are bound, not by a particular religion or political party, or even by the land we live on, but by the idea of freedom and rule by law as expressed in our Constitution. The founding fathers were well aware this form of government required a devout population. (They didn't expect everyone to be a believer, and they respected conscientious agnostics or atheists, but it was their expectation that the general population would be religious.) If the US were not (mostly) Christian, our form of government might have gone the way of all previous experiments in democracy -- collapsing into corruption and tyranny.

[megatherium]

While they didn't set one religion of the land, religion was protected from government intervention(the exact opposite of what is going on now).

Yes -- as I understand it, the establishment clause was not intended to prohibit official expressions of a religious nature, but rather to prevent a state church (such as the English Church) from being founded, and also to ensure that minority faiths would be free of harassment. I am sure the founding fathers never intended on the complete removal of prayer or religious displays from public life.

I was pleased that where I teach (a public university) the invocation at commencement was given by a local minister who asked for God's blessings on the proceedings in the name of Jesus Christ. None of my colleagues happened to comment on this (even the militant agnostics).

[EmilyGeiger]

The ACLU would not want these statements repeated; "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson; "We will either be governed by God, or ruled by tyrants." William Penn; "When America ceases to be religious, she will cease to be great." Alexis De Toqueville; "It cannot be empahasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry

[Vision]

it was their expectation that the general population would be religious

Right on

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, October 11, 1798

[The Mayor]

BTTT!

Excellent read!

[Tailgunner Joe]

Led By God - Here’s the plain truth: Public speech, public confession and public monuments are not manifestations of forced religion, but its opposite.

That such reminders, monuments and testimonials were not deemed by Jefferson as manifestations of forced religion are further witnessed by Jefferson’s proposal for the Great Seal of the United States.

Think of this. Shortly after 1776, he submitted a drawing depicting the aforementioned theme, that is, “the children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night,” with the bold inscription “Israel Led by God’s Pillar of Fire” and, in smaller print, “Liberty under God’s law – Man’s Inalienable Birthright of Freedom.”

[EmilyGeiger]

Let me add one more quote; "Our ancestors established their system of government of morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits. Living under the heavenly light of revelation, they hoped to find all the social dispositions, all the duties which men owe to each other and to society, enforced and performed. Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens..." Daniel Webster

[ladyjane]

if they had all been Christians, they might have done something foolish and our Republic would not have lasted.

You think Christians do foolish things? and groups of Christians do even more foolish things? What group do you come from that is so smart?

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP - Constitution and history

[jongaltsr]

Back then, America was a segregated nation, too.

To tell the truth, so was the rest of the planet.
I also remember cities across the US were segrated (By Choice) until the 70's).
Have you noted that certain ethinic groups tend to clump together even today - to some degree?
I would also bet that should we let people have their way (and not be regulated by current laws) that we would slowly migrate back to the old ethnic neighborhoods.