[tpaine]

" How exactly, could any of these theories affect the survival of America?"

Have you taken a look at Congress and the Courts recently?
betty boop

Bondserv:
By blatantly disregarding the Foundation of our Nation:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Congress and the Courts are "blatantly disregarding" our Constitution.
The fact that they are also ignoring who created what, - while an interesting religious question, - will never affect our survival as a Republic, because they are duty bound by the Law of the Land to ignore such divisive religious issues.

[See article VI - 'No religious Test']

[tpaine]

Joseph Story on religious tests (Article 6, Clause 3):

"- § 1841. The remaining part of the clause declares, that "no religious test shall ever be required, as a qualification to any office or public trust, under the United States."

This clause is not introduced merely for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of many respectable persons, who feel an invincible repugnance to any religious test, or affirmation. It had a higher object; to cut off for ever every pretence of any alliance between church and state in the national government. The framers of the constitution were fully sensible of the dangers from this source, marked out in the history of other ages and countries; and not wholly unknown to our own.

[betty boop]

Congress and the Courts are "blatantly disregarding" our Constitution.... The fact that they are also ignoring who created what, - while an interesting religious question, - will never affect our survival as a Republic, because they are duty bound by the Law of the Land to ignore such divisive religious issues.

The survival of our Republic, my dear friend, will depend on people recognizing that our very Constitution is ordered on a particular view of man, and hence the resulting political order must support this view -- which is thoroughgoingly classical and Judeo-Christian at its root.

The intent of the Framers cannot be understood without recognizing that their intellectual and spiritual roots were in Athen, Jerusalem, and Rome. FWIW.

If we value our Constitution for the wisdom of its Framers, then we need to honor the very sources that they relied on. Once we start spitting at that, the ignominious end of the American polity is already in view.... FWIW

I'm hunkering down right now, because I know how much you love to disagree with me! But the fact is: It's lovely to see you again, tpaine!