No, I won't end it here. I don't have to. The legitimate debate ended a long time ago; in 1797, in fact, with the unanimous ratification in the Senate of these words: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;". Those words are part of the Treaty of Tripoli, the very first treaty with a foreign power ratified under our new Constitution. It was read aloud to the full Senate, approved unanimously without objection, and signed by President John Adams. Like Adams, most of our other nation's founders were still alive at the time of ratification, and like Adams and the Senate, none of them expressed any objections to those words. What's particularly striking about those words is the inclusion of the clause "in any sense". When an enemy of our First Amendment contends that this nation was founded upon Christian principles he is simply lying, because that would be a "sense" and it directly contradicts the Treaty's explicit "not founded" declaration. Yes, some of our founders adhered to Christian principles; no, they did not found this country upon such. The Ten Commandments, in particular, are anathema to the freedoms delineated in our Bill of Rights. Yes, the debate ended long ago, although the controversy persists. Why? Because crackpot historical revisionists, with no confidence in the power of their own message, desperately try to project their own religion onto this nation's very purpose and make it an official part of our government. They misapply historical quotes, take quotes out of context, invent quotes, and ignore the most important quotes. Ultimately their methods won't work on attentive people because sadly for them they don't contain "any sense."
If you're going to quote someone, at least put quotation marks around it. The statement above is a good example of this, which is taken from your own stolen material above. Read this thread and if you need help with the big words, let me know. You are unable to make an original statement, which makes you a tool. http://www.tigerforums.com/showthread.php?t=31334 Try reading the rest. You will soon discover that your point is founded on taking something out of context.
What stolen material? WTF are you talking about? I didn't steal any material. And yes, by all means, read the entire Treaty. I didn't take anything out of context. There is just simply no sense in cutting and pasting an entire treaty to this board. But that didn't stop you from attempting a dishonest tactic, did it? My words are my own. Yours, on the other hand, are cut and pasted from such quacks like David Barton.
Every word in your original post is stolen. Don't deny it, you know it's true. Your lack of putting it in quotes is a feeble attempt to have us believe you wrote it. It didn't work.
Prove it. I'll remind you that your own religion warns you in a commandment against bearing false witness.
Treaty of Triploi Quote all of Article 11 from the Treaty of Tripoli and not just the small snippet you did and if you take it in context it says that the religious beliefs of the people in the United States will never cause them to fight a Mohomitan nation soley based on religion. http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9805/religion.html http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9805/religion.html All of the 50 states original Constitutions mention God, 11 of the 13 original states required religious tests for public officials, and some of the original states even had official state religions. To say that America is a Christian nation is incorrect because we don't have a national religion but to say that America wasn't founded on at least the morality and principles of Christianity is wrong too.
