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After reading "A Patriot's History," the editor of HNN asked me to write something on the Founders and religion.


1 posted on 05/30/2005 12:47:26 PM PDT by LS
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To: LS

Tell that to the ACLU and they'll sue to de-constitutionalize our country.


2 posted on 05/30/2005 12:50:57 PM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: LS

Thank you.


3 posted on 05/30/2005 12:52:19 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: LS

That's partly bacause most schools were religiously affiliated. Yale was a seminary when it began.


4 posted on 05/30/2005 12:53:41 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopeckne is walking around free)
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To: LS; mugs99; oldglory; MinuteGal; JulieRNR21; mcmuffin

BTTT!


5 posted on 05/30/2005 12:55:25 PM PDT by Matchett-PI (Bad news for atheists: Postmoderns reject all meta-narratives including macro-evolution. LOL)
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To: LS

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Vanderbilt were all originally divinity schools. They still have divinity courses becaue it is required in their charters but they are only token courses often taught by people who view Christianity as for the unenlightend, unwashed masses.


6 posted on 05/30/2005 12:55:25 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: LS
Here is a list of the signers and their religious affiliations:

Signers of The Declaration of Independence

Framers of the Constitution

7 posted on 05/30/2005 12:56:49 PM PDT by kabar
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To: LS

Interesting.


11 posted on 05/30/2005 1:12:30 PM PDT by guitar Josh
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To: LS
Alexander Hamilton stated that he would “willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station.” But of course, Hamilton had gotten that training from a New Jersey minister, who funded his education.

His education was paid for by a stipend donated by the St. Croix business community.  They had hopes he might become a doctor and return to the island to set up practice.  Must be thinking about Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian minister, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, who some think was responsible for motivating the St. Croix business people to set up Hamilton's stipend.

His earlier education was done privately by a local Jewess.  His family history probably kept him out of the local religious school.

12 posted on 05/30/2005 1:23:50 PM PDT by Racehorse (Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)
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To: LS

bookmark


14 posted on 05/30/2005 1:39:44 PM PDT by chaosagent (It's all right to be crazy. Just don't let it drive you nuts.)
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To: LS

Did you know that after flunking out of Harvard Law, Algore flunked out of divinity school at Vanderbilt?


16 posted on 05/30/2005 1:58:21 PM PDT by ABG(anybody but Gore) (I don't hate anybody, except the French....)
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To: LS

A real interesting essay would be how this whole separation of church & state was implemented by the Supreme Court, the players involved, how they got away with this and why?


17 posted on 05/30/2005 1:58:48 PM PDT by Bommer
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To: LS

bump


21 posted on 05/30/2005 2:22:16 PM PDT by Freedom of Speech Wins
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To: LS
No NONONONONONONONO! (Shrill shriek rising to the point that dogs are getting a migraine!)

They were all atheists! They hated God, they were all Shirley MacLaine followers who liked to go sky clad while cavorting with the natives!

There's no proof they even existed, it's all a hoax perpetrated by the extreme Christian Right Wingers who went back in time and planted these documents!

LIES! LIES! LIES! (whimper)

(liberal Christian-hating rant mode = off)

I love anything that will send the libs into stroke territory.
22 posted on 05/30/2005 2:23:25 PM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg (Children's classic songs updated for Islam "If you're happy and you know it, Go Kaboom!")
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To: LS
If laws and rights are not based in a large part on religion - which results in an unquestionable legitimacy, all laws and rights would flow from only the opinion of the most powerful.

Read what the Founding Fathers said about this subject:


James Madison (Architect of the U.S. Constitution & Co-Author of the Federalist Papers)

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

(also From his notes)

"Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ."

"Religion [is] the basis and Foundation of Government."


Patrick Henry (...as for me, give me liberty or give me death!)

"It cannot be emphasized 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 Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased a the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"



Benjamin Rush (signer...Declaration of Independence)

"By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime."

"I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat."


George Washington

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."


Daniel Webster

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may ovenvhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

"Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.

"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy, If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."


In 1832, Noah Webster published his History of the United States, in which he wrote:

"The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.

"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws....All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty;

"If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes;

"Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.

"If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."

"Corruption of morals is rapid enough in any country without a bounty from government. And...the Chief Magistrate of the United States should be the last man to accelerate its progress."



Laws and rights based on the Christian religion results in an unquestionable legitimacy...to believers.

If we 'cleaned house' of ALL government laws, statutes, including the U.S. Constitution of anything based on Judeo-Christian morals and values, what rights would we the people have left?

At the end of the day - most of ours laws are based on a MORAL vrs. IMMORAL code that is rooted in religious beliefs. If laws and rights are not based in a large part on religion - which results in an unquestionable legitimacy, all laws and rights would flow from only the opinion of the most powerful.

Katherine & Van Jenerette
www.jenerette.com

 



24 posted on 05/30/2005 2:42:19 PM PDT by kjenerette (Jenerette for Senate - www.jenerette.com - U.S. Army Desert Storm)
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To: LS

"Did You Know that Half the Declaration's Signers Had Divinity School Training?"

Did you know that almost all of those who will eventually destroy the Declaration of Indepence have had no Divinity School training?


26 posted on 05/30/2005 4:07:57 PM PDT by Ursus arctos horribilis ("It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)
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To: LS

ping to self for later pingout.


32 posted on 05/30/2005 5:22:14 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Resisting evil is our duty or we are as responsible as those promoting it.)
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To: LS

Great article. Thanks for posting it here.


35 posted on 05/30/2005 5:28:50 PM PDT by lodwick (Integrity has no need of rules. Albert Camus)
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To: Para-Ord.45

Since you posted a thread yesterday (Jefferson/Madison/Franklin Hated God ! ?), I thought this might interest you.


36 posted on 05/30/2005 5:29:17 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
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To: LS

They were also all men. White men.

Oh the humanity....


49 posted on 05/30/2005 7:29:52 PM PDT by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: thompsonsjkc; odoso; animoveritas; St. Johann Tetzel; DaveTesla; mercygrace; ...

Moral Absolutes Ping.

Sounds like an interesting book I'd like to read. I read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography a while ago and it was highly interesting. He may not have attended church, but he certainly (as per his book) had faith in God, prayed himself and advocated prayer and religious training and practice.

Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.


62 posted on 06/02/2005 9:57:04 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Resisting evil is our duty or we are as responsible as those promoting it.)
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