Further Rants, Freedom of Religion

‎"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case

gotten at secondhand, and without examination, from authorities who have not yet

themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them secondhand from

other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." ~

Mark Twain

Some thoughts on freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and people who give

religion a bad name...Hitler was a Christian. Our beloved Abraham Lincoln was an atheist. Ayn

Rand happened also to be an atheist, one who hated nearly everyone, but who thought enough

of big government to cash her welfare checks--it's a free country even for right-wing

goddesses, godless or not.If you want to persecute groups for their sins, you're ineligible to

call yourself Christian, Buddhist or most other religions. Jesus provides tons of problems for

the right-wing Christians and others who would kill abortion doctors and such: he said we

ought to love our neighbors as ourselves and to forgive and to even LOVE our enemies.

Inconvenient facts for the rah-rah religious crowd, but there you are. Life is not a football game. Life is real life. One of my pet peeves is this attitude that one must "show unity" by agreeing with the Christian right. It's as if we're wearing the wrong school colors--cheering for the other team (whatever that is in this case, as there is a plethora of religions (35 different religions) and Christian demoninations (217 + different Christian sects in America today....145,800,000 + various Christians--that's tons). Mega churches and small groups of meditators and even smaller groups who simply come together to pray, Wiccans and Native Americans and Hindus like Julia Roberts and Russell Brand and many others.Muslims and Catholics and Seventh-Day Adventists and Mormons. It is a very big world, even in the states. There is room for all beliefs here.

The sweet-hearted Quakers meet not in churches but in meeting halls; they follow tenets formed over two-hundred years, at least--I'm just guessing here. They are Christians and they believe in honest relationships and in group prayer. . . but I don't believe they have a strong lobby associated with the Koch Brothers or with Rupert Murdoch. . . I believe that would go against the grain of their sincere, simple and quiet tendencies. Something about the FOX news church people is so ugly and dark, it might as well be a national movement of money changers whose temples are rooted firmly in Wall Street's criminal activities. I'm tired of other people's beliefs, especially when they

At a wedding reception, an overly earnest, frowning man asked a minister: "Do you believe in infant baptism?"

"Believe in it? I've SEEN it!" the minister cried. He was also a seminary professor who had just come out of a long semester's work, and who, that day, did not have patience to talk religion with someone who was obviously gunning for an argument over tenets, whose beliefs were held perhaps in higher regard than his own behavior. One on one or in huge mobs, religion is being flaunted in militaristic ways today.

Giving religion a bad name is not Kosher. Marching with signs against others due to religious differences is dangerous, it's a terrible and scurrilous practice which separates all concerned from any semblance of love. It is also in very bad taste--it's downright tacky, a term which describes a lot of activities carried out these days by Christian groups.

To the Tea Party members, with a huge sigh of impatience and very little tolerance, I wish you'd all cut it out, but this is not a perfect world. Just don't try to legislate the rest of us to fall in line according to YOUR religious beliefs and practices ...that's just being a bully, and it's unconstitutional. So worship as you please, but get out of my face with your hate mongering control-freak ways. It's supposed to be a free country, even for sleaze-buckets like Ayn Rand. She had her say, but she didn't try to legislate it for the whole country, did she? I don't THINK so.

The founding fathers of our country were mostly Deists. Their usage of terms like "God" had to do not with Christianity, but rather due to the present tradition that kings ruled under the authority of God--the Divine Right of Kings. But the constitution was wrought to avoid that. In fact, "the 1796 treaty with Tripoli states that the United States was "in no sense founded on the Christian religion"--not an idle statement meant to satisfy Muslims-- they believed it and meant it. This treaty was written under the presidency of George Washington and signed under the presidency of John Adams."

So we are not a Christian nation--to say so defiles the terms United States of America, as well as the term "Christian." It suggests that Christians are entitled to telling the rest of the nation what to do because "God told me so." Bull. Utter nonsense. Doing harm in the name of religion--I'd like to see people stop it.

But before they did, very likely their towns would have to be leveled by tornadoes or hail storms or floods. . . and those tragic acts of nature would probably have to be connected directly to polluting conditions, directly caused by corporations. Even then. Do you suppose most of the zealots would awaken?

My concerns are shared by many today. But I don't think we will have to worry for much longer about the right's taking over the government. . . the pawns they represent, their puppet masters, are not ideologically or theologically motivated. It's all about the money and most of us know that. The rah-rah crowds are falling into line,in keeping with those who really are the gods of America: those who already own us all. And that does not ring true according to any religious tenet I have ever read or been taught. That sounds more like pure evil. The evil Empire. At what cost will we awaken?

See http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html for a closer look at the religious connections--or rather disconnections--with the authors of our constitution.