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WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS? THE HISTORY OF A BAD QUESTION

WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS? THE HISTORY OF A BAD QUESTION. David Barton. Madalyn Murray O'Hair. David Barton's "America's Godly Heritage". 52 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were "orthodox" Christians and many were "evangelical Christians."

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WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS? THE HISTORY OF A BAD QUESTION

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  1. WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS? THE HISTORY OF A BAD QUESTION David Barton Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  2. David Barton's "America's Godly Heritage" • 52 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were "orthodox" Christians and many were "evangelical Christians." • Cites the Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, • 143 U.S. 457 (1892), for the proposition that this is "emphatically a Christian nation."

  3. Benjamin Rush “…Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.”

  4. John Jay “…it the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

  5. Steven Morris’ The Founding Fathers Were Not Christians! The Christian Right is trying to re-write the history of the United States, as part of their campaign to force their religion on others who ask merely to be left alone. According this Orwellian revision, the Founding Fathers of this country were pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity. The Atheist Alliance Web Center

  6. Ethan Allen "That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words." “I am denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian."

  7. Thomas Paine “My country is the world, mankind are my friends, and my religion is to do good.” "It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible." “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."The Age of Reason

  8. THE AVOIDED MIDDLE OR WHY LOADED QUESTIONS ALWAYS HAVE EASY ANSWERS

  9. Excerpts from Benjamin Franklin’s Creed " We best render God service by doing good for his other children." " The soul will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. " " I don’t think that the Supreme Being doesn’t take it amiss whether you believe or not. “ v. “He (God) ought to be worshiped”

  10. First Four Presidents As Complex Historical Examples

  11. George Washington "Dear Sir: In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant.” Memoir of Bishop White “The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.” 1778, Letter to Thomas Nelson

  12. John Adams "Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?" "The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.“ “[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.” (Barton’s favorite quote) "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797,

  13. Thomas Jefferson “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth." "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Letter to J. Adams April 11,1823

  14. James Madison "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."A letter to William Bradford April 1, 1774,

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